There's Something in the Dark
by Dr. Christie
Summary: In St. Aquinas, nightmares haunt the halls. Torchwood has been called in, but discover there is someone else wandering these halls. An old friend- The Doctor. Torchwood-Doctor Who cross over featuring Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, Amy, and Doctor 11(CURRENTLY ABANDONED)
1. Prologue

**Right- Hello, sorry, Loving the Impossible is going very slowly due to writer's block and school, I will try hard to have the next chapter up this weekend but for now here!**

**I do not own anything... well Doctor Who... except a mug... well anyways!**

**This is a Torchwood-Doctor Who crossover, set after The Wedding of River Song, so spoilers there, and before Owen's 'death' in Torchwood, but with some spoilers for Children of the Earth**

**Also, this is T because it's a mix of Torchwood, Owen, Jack and later, there will be references to a boy being abused as a child, I'm sorry to anyone who has had that, and I'm not trying to offend anyone with that, but anyways, here's the story.**

**Oh and a summary first-**

**In St. Aquinas, nightmares haunt the halls. Torchwood has been called in, but discover there is someone else wandering these halls. An old friend- The Doctor.**

**Lol that was crappy, hopefully the story'll be better-  
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**There's Something in the Dark**

**Prologue  
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**1:02 AM 13 September 2008**

**St. Aquinas' School, Northern Maine**

Michael walked slowly down the corridor, taking care to dodge the floorboards he knew creaked. Even though he had only been here two weeks, he had gotten to know this old building very well. Too well in fact.

He glanced around, moving his hands out in front of him, searching the dark.

A floorboard creaked. It echoed through the building, almost as if the whole house had moved at the tiny disturbance. Michael took a quick breath.

Another creak.

Closer.

He froze. Then.

SNAP.

A door to his right was flung open and instead of the expected Aaron Larcksty, it was Him.

Michael screamed and ran.

This was a dream. It had to be a dream, He was locked up, He couldn't be here.

He wasn't concentrating on where he was going and soon tripped over a loose board, flying forward, almost breaking his wrist when he landed roughly, at the very edge of the steep staircase.

"Come here, you," growled the all-to familiar voice. Michael felt a large, cold hand wrap tightly around his wrist, forcing the boy to stand, "Told you not to wander off, didn't I?" With the growling voice came the distinct smell of alcohol.

Michael whimpered and tried to jerk out of the tight grip. In doing so, he lost his footing.

Time seemed to stop. Michael flailed, his feet and hands not connecting with anything. He twisted around, just as he hit the banister, falling over the side.

The floor shot up towards him.

CRACK!

Michael shot up in bed, breathing heavily. On the other side of the room Jacob, his roommate, turned over in his sleep, almost sliding off the thin bed.

So it _had_ been a dream. He moved back until he hit the wall his bed was pushed up against, his feet dangling over the side.

The windows rattled in the wind, rain pounding against the roof. The trees that surrounded the ancient building scraped against the sides.

Michael sighed, he'd been having that nightmare ever since he had come to this school. Before that it had been set in his 'parent's' home, and before _that_ it was in the orphanage. Originally it had been in his home, where He was.

Michael shivered at the memory.

He would never be rid of the nightmares, but his 'mother' had taught him some tricks to make them more bearable. The problem was, they didn't seem work here. He had been fine for the four months he had spent his 'parent's' home, but as soon as he had walked in through the school's doors… well that's when the nightmares started up again, and this time worse.

Sometimes he had them when he was awake. Not the running down the hall and almost getting killed, but hearing His voice, smelling the alcohol that accompanied him, feeling the brush of His hand in the hall.

Michael stood, he couldn't take this anymore, just sitting here, waiting for something to happen.

He snuck out of the room quietly, almost mirroring what had happened in his dream. He dodged the floorboards, snuck around Aaron Larcksty's room, and moved quickly and quietly down the steep staircase.

Hearing voices, he pressed himself against the hallway's wall and held his breath.

"I had another one come in just an hour ago," That was the Headmaster.

"Was it nightmares again?" The Assistant Headmistress.

"Yes, but this time… the boy said he was scared, came out of his room, to go see his brother-" Kevin Merits, Michael thought. He had met Kevin his first day, the kid was tiny for his age- 11 and extremely jumpy and easily scared. His brother, Malcolm was the exact opposite. Malcolm was large, strong, brave, and overly protective of his younger brother. The Headmaster continued, walking in front of the large double doors that lead to the garden- "But on his way, he said he saw a ghost."

"Who was this?" The Assistant Headmistress asked.

"The Merits boy," The man replied, "Why? He tell you the same story?"

"No," The woman said, stopping outside her office which was connected to her bedroom, "But I have heard that story, from the other boys, not just the young ones. Just last week one of the eldest boys, Patrick Clarence came and told me about how he had been chased around the east wing by his neighbor's old dog."

"Rediculous," The Headmaster said, "Clarence lives in Ohio, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but that's not all," She continued, "The neighbor moved away three years ago and the dog died the year before that. I've heard many different stories, but they all involve someone or something that cannot possibly be here."

"So you believe these stories of ghosts then?" The Headmaster scoffed, "Really."

"What can it be then?" The Assistant asked, Michael leaned forward. He wasn't the only one then. The Assistant Headmistress continued, "Did Abigail tell you the real reason why she quit?"

"No, you were that old bitch's only friend," The Headmaster said. Michael couldn't help but be shocked, he knew the Headmaster wasn't the nicest of men, but calling the old nurse that? She had been kind to Michael when she had found out about Derik.

"_Abigail_" The Assistant Headmistress said stiffly, "Had been seeing her first husband. The one who… Well the one she ran away from. But he's been dead ten years. And the old gardener, left the year before you came- he kept seeing his least favorite aunt's old cat. He was terrified of that cat. But the aunt and the cat died when he was twelve. I can go on, the boys and the teachers, we've all-"

"_You_?" the Headmaster cut her off.

"Maybe," The Assistant Headmistress said.

"And what might it have been that you have been… seeing?" He said stiffly.

Michael didn't hear the rest of the conversation. A floorboard creaked behind him. The boy turned slowly.

Walking slowly towards him was…

"Derik?" Michael whispered. The older boy looked terrified, he moved closer to Michael. "Derik? What's going on?" Michael whispered, "How're… how's this? Derik!"

"What was that?" The Headmaster shouted, running to the sound of Michael's shout. The boy was curled on the floor, crying.

"He's gone!" The boy shouted, "He killed him!"

"What are you talking about, boy!" The Headmaster said harshly. "Who's killed who?"

"Derik! He's dead!" Michael shouted. Doors were creaking open all over the house, heads were poking out of rooms, wanting to know what the commotion was about.

"It's Michael, isn't it?" The Assistant Headmistress asked, kneeling down before Michael. She was an average looking woman in her early thirties with light brown hair that was cut short around her face and giving a good view of her light blue eyes, "What's wrong Michael?"

"He's got him," Michael said, sniffing.

"Who? Who's got him?" The woman asked kindly.

"He does."

"Who? Did this just happen?"

The boy shook his head. "It can't have."

"What do you mean?" The Headmaster said.

"They can't be here."

The Assistant Headmistress froze at this, recognizing the story. The Headmaster however, wasn't going to put up with this. He stood.

"Out of bed at midnight! Making up stories of murders! You're in big trouble boy," He said firmly, "And as for you lot!" He looked around the hall at the all the doors that were _just_ open, just enough for the occupants to hear what was going on the floor below, "You will all be back in bed and asleep in five minutes, or you will all be serving detention!" He looked down at the boy curled in a ball on the floor, "I've had enough of this, I'm calling the police."

"Here, come with me," The Assistant Headmistress helped Michael up, she turned to the Headmaster, "I'm going to take him to my office and see if I can help."

The Headmaster frowned but agreed nonetheless and went to phone the police.

When he reached his room, he pulled out his cell phone.

No signal.

"What?" He muttered to himself, there was always a signal here, not always the best, but they had never lost it.

He went looking for the nearest land line. There were none on the first floor, something he would have to fix. He made his way carefully up the staircase, it was dark and the stairs were steep, easy to trip on. Another reason he hated this school.

He spotted the phone. Right on the landing. When had they put that there?

The Headmaster picked it up, dialing. He put the phone to his ear. Nothing.

Was everything broken in this house?

"Damn it." He muttered and turned, trying to remember where another phone would be. The house was silent but for his breathing. And another's.

He jumped around.

"How! How is… How are you here?" He nearly screamed, "This isn't possible!" he backed away, not noticing the stairs right behind him.

The figure continued to advance and the Headmaster slowly backed away. His foot slipped, in a similar fashion to Michael's dream, the man was flung over the banister, landing in the middle of the hall.

Dead.

* * *

><p><strong>7:34 13 September 2008<strong>

**Torchwood Headquarters, Cardiff**

Jack sighed as he moved yet another report to the growing pile on his desk.

"You know, sometimes I wish one of these was a little note saying how nice the weather is in, oh I don't know, Glasgow, or maybe it's a report on some good bars in the area," Jack said as Ianto Jones walked into his office, carrying a tray with a cup of coffee on it. "But no, it's all- 'I saw an alien, well, it might actually have been my neighbor's dog, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.' And then there's the times it actually _is_ an alien."

"Morning sir," Ianto said as he handing Jack a steaming cup of coffee, "Nice and hot. Anything interesting?" He asked, motioning towards the huge tower of reports on Jack's desk.

"Not really, but there is some old lady in London who's been having a daily tea party with Winston Churchill," Jack said, taking a sip.

"Has Emery's had any problems?" Ianto asked getting straight to the point, the reason he was in Jack's office, "I told them we'd be going back to check in on them this month, in case we missed some eggs in our clean up."

Jack frowned, "Thanks for reminding me about _that_ experience. But… I haven't gotten anything yet. If they do, we'll be the first to know, I'm monitoring the school now."

"Right," Ianto said with a sigh.

"What? Trying to find something to do?" Jack smirked.

"It's been a slow week sir is all," Ianto said, ignoring Jack, "Would you like anything to go with your coffee?"

"No, I'm fine," Jack said, "Just had breakfast."

Ianto nodded and exited the office, dodging expertly around Gwen who was tossing a basketball across the hub to Tosh.

Jack leaned back in his chair, smiling slightly as he heard the sound of the basket ball hoop rattle as the ball passed through, thrown by Gwen.

"Told you you couldn't beat us!" The former police-woman said, laughed, "Thought he could take on the both of us, didn't he, Tosh?"

"Oh, definitely," Tosh laughed as Owen walked away from the two women.

"You two cheated."

"No, we didn't," Gwen laughed, "You just shouldn't have said you could beat us both."

Owen rolled his eyes in Jack's direction to which the immortal laughed.

"They aren't going to let this go, Owen," Jack called, turning to his computer as it alerted him to a new email. He frowned, it was under the Emery category. So maybe Ianto would be taking a trip today.

"Yeah, well, since you two cheated, the bet didn't count," The doctor said.

"Oh, yes it does," Gwen said, following Owen down to the autopsy room, which was currently empty. Other than the large amount of reports, which were mainly reports of civilians freaking out over a recent alien landing, work at Torchwood was going slowly.

Jack sat up. "Hey, you lot! Over here now!"

Gwen and Tosh quickly ran to his office, while Owen and Ianto took their time.

"What is it Jack?" Tosh asked, curious.

Jack spun the monitor around so the other four could read the short, but to the point email from UNIT.

"Martha just sent us this, says she thinks it'd be a good idea if we looked into it," Jack said.

"St. Aquinas," Ianto said out loud, "Saint Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of students and universities."

"How do you know that?" Owen asked in disbelief.

"It's the sister school of Emery's," Ianto said. Jack nodded.

"Apparently they've been having some trouble with ghosts," He said, "They were just being spooky up until two days ago, when the Headmaster was found dead, fell down the stairs."

There was a picture of the body and the large, open room it was found in.

"Those stairs are dangerous," Owen said, "He could've easily tripped, if it was the middle of the night then the probability of him just tripping goes way up."

"So why do they say it's the ghost?" Tosh asked.

"Because right before he died, the kids heard him shouting about someone. 'How's this possible? How can you be here?' that sort of stuff," Jack said, "Martha knew about the Crevian problem at Emery's-"

"Crevians don't do ghosty stuff though," Gwen interrupted, "They're just those big lizard things aren't they?" Owen rolled his eyes. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that on Gwen's one, forced day off, the rest of the team had been stuck in a boarding school chasing down giant, carnivorous lizards.

"Yes. Good description, big lizard things that eat everything in sight and lay eggs everywhere," Ianto said, "And Gwen's right, they don't do hauntings."

"It was more the fact that they were aliens," Jack said, "Martha thought the sister school might have a similar problem. Both schools went through huge budget cuts last year, over half the staff from both schools were replaced."

"That's how the Crevians got in right?" Gwen asked.

"Possibly," Jack said, "There was a signal sent from inside the school that they were attracted to. The signal started up around when the staff changes were. So Martha thought this might be something similar, or related."

"So what're we going to do?" Owen asked, "Hold a séance and ask the ghost if some alien asked them to come and kill this dude?"

"No," Jack glared at the doctor, "But we are going to go to the school and check it out."

"Hold up," Owen said as Jack stood, "But it said the school was in America."

"Yeah," Jack said, pulling his coat on.

"Isn't that a bit out of our jurisdiction?" Owen asked.

"We protect the _Earth_, Owen, since when is America not on Earth?" Jack asked.

"Well there was that one time those aliens came and tried to arrest one of their criminals, but the tractor beam was a bit off…" Ianto said.

Owen glared at him, "I didn't know their translation software was shit! Tosh could've done a better job at ours!"

"But there is a difference between, 'make it two meters bigger' and 'make it two kilometers bigger'" Ianto said, Jack, Tosh and Gwen walked past the two, off to grab any equipment they might need.

"Again, I would have liked it if her translations had been a bit more precise," Owen shot back.

"And I think everyone in…Maine was it? Would agree," Ianto said, moving to clear up Jack's desk.

Owen gave up, and stomped off to his work station.

"You two done?" Jack called down from the conference room. When no one responded he continued, "Good! Pack up anything we might need, and pack a bag! We're going to America!"

* * *

><p><strong>6:25 PM 31 October 2011<strong>

**Williams Residency, Leadworth**

Rory, who until seconds before had been sleeping peacefully in a lawn chair, was startled awake by a loud scream followed by a crash coming from behind him.

He jumped up, spinning in a circle before he realized the noise had come from their kitchen. He sprinted indoors, barely dodging around the table in the hall, and burst into the kitchen.

"Amy!" Rory slid to a stop.

Standing in the middle of the kitchen, his arms wrapped tightly around Rory's wife was…

"Doctor?" Rory asked.

"Rory the Roman!" The Doctor let go of Amy and moved to pull the nurse into a tight hug. Rory pulled out of it after a second.

"What are you doing here?" Rory asked.

"Oh you know, visiting," The Doctor said, sitting down at the kitchen table and flipping through the pages of the cookbook placed in front of him, "Just popped in to say hello, long time no see and all that. Although, from your point of view it might be short time, no see. Not sure, time travel…" He trailed off, looking around the room, quickly bored by how many ways to cook chicken there were.

Amy glanced at Rory.

"Um, Doctor," Rory asked, getting the message, "Where are you? In your… timeline…"

"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked, knowing perfectly well what Rory meant. Had he been to Lake Silencio.

"Uh, how old are you?" Rory asked, he wasn't as good as this as his…daughter.

"1027," The Doctor lied quickly.

"Right, so why're you here?" Amy asked, then quickly continued "Not that we aren't glad to see you… but it's not really like you."

The Doctor jumped up and walked over to where Amy was and grabbed a newspaper Rory had left lying next to the sink.

"Oh, oops," He said, picking it up.

"What do you mean 'oops'?" Rory asked, then froze, "Hold on, the world isn't going to explode or send us into some alternate timeline is it?"

"No, no…" The Doctor said, throwing the newspaper across the room, "Wrong date, that's all."

"What do you mean, wrong date?" Amy said, then, after a pause, she continued, "I _knew_ you didn't mean to come here."

"No, I did, but not today," The Doctor said, "It's a bit too late…and off."

"How much too late?"

"Three years…" The Doctor said, looking anywhere but Rory or Amy, adding as quietly as he could- "And it's the wrong continent, But! Love what you've done with the hall…" He said loudly, moving out of the kitchen.

"You got the wrong continent." Rory said, "Your driving hasn't gotten any better, has it?"

"It doesn't help when you have a sentient time machine that sometimes doesn't feel like taking you where you want to go," The Doctor said.

"Great excuse that," Rory said.

The Doctor was nearly to the front door now.

"Doctor!" Amy cut him off, "You can't just leave now."

"Sorry," The Doctor said, "It's too late, I've got to go back."

"Back where?" Rory asked.

"America," The Doctor said with a grin.

Rory and Amy froze.

"What? America?" Amy said with a forced laugh, "What about it?"

"Someone I need to see," The Doctor said, "He'll be over there."

"How do you know?" Rory asked.

"He told me," The Doctor said.

"Why couldn't you just do whatever you had to do when they told you?" Amy asked, now curious.

"That's the thing," The Doctor said, "He told me he saw me there, slipped more like, and there were strange reports, I was there, going to move the TARDIS but it sent me here."

"Maybe it means we're supposed to go," Amy said, trying to convince him. Even though River had told them the Doctor was alive, it was still hard seeing him. She wanted to spend every possible second with him. Seeing his 'death' had been too much.

She didn't want to lose her imaginary friend.

Rory picked up on this and said, "The TARDIS can see all time at once, right? So maybe she saw this, and knew we needed to go."

"Yes, but then It could just be that she's a type 40 TARDIS with terrible steering," The Doctor said, he wasn't too sure he wanted the young couple being involved with his…friend.

"But there could be every chance that it isn't the steering," Amy said.

After a pause, the Doctor sighed, "Fine….fine." He moved to walk out the door, but Amy was still in his way, "Well, are we going or not?"

Amy smiled and hugged him, "Thanks."

"You may not be thanking me when we get there," The Doctor said. He knew what River had done after their encounter at the crash of the Byzantium, how Amy knew. But he couldn't tell her it was him, the one who survived. So he was making up for it…. By most likely putting her in great danger.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, the Doctor was moving quickly around the TARDIS console, pulling levers, jamming down buttons, and typing away on the typewriter.<p>

"So, where in America are we going, exactly?" Rory asked as he held on for dear life. The TARDIS spun and jerked, throwing the three time travelers around the room. Rory fell, but stood quickly. He couldn't help but smile. He would never admit it, even to himself, but he had missed this. Not specifically the danger of being splattered against the walls, but the adventure of going to a different time.

"One of the northern states… uh… Maine," The Doctor said, pulling the veiwscreen towards him, "St. Aquistines, it's a boarding school, originally for boys, but in 2009 they open it up for girls after six years of debate."

"What day then?" Amy asked, "You said it was in the past."

"Yes!" The Doctor punched down a few more keys on the typewriter, the TARDIS had stopped jerking aobut, "13 September, 2008. Aaaaaaand There!"

The TARDIS landed smoothly, much to the married couple's surprise.

"We're here," The Doctor grinned.

**Hope you liked this, it's just the prologue, but I'll try to get the first chapter up this weekend.**

**Please review! Reviews are wonderful!**


	2. Introductions

**A/N- Right, so I realized the Torchwood wouldn't know Martha if this was before Owen's 'death', so Owen is now 'dead' and it is set after the episodes about his death, so Martha left, and I realize the dates are after Owen and Tosh's deaths, so let's just pretend they died sometime in October cos I like September for haunting... idk why... So yes, personally I thought the last chapter wasn't too great- hope this one's better. Thanks for reading.**

**Oh, and basically spoilers all through season 6 of Doctor Who and Owen's 'death' in Torchwood.  
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**Chapter 1**

**Introductions**

**3:22 pm 15 September 2008**

**St. Aquinas', Maine**

"Cheerful place for a school," The Doctor noticed, spinning around to take in the grounds. They had landed in the middle of the lawn, right next to a picturesque lake and the Doctor had led them towards a large house, almost a mansion, that dominated the surrounding grounds.

On their right was an elaborate maze of hedges and to the left there was a huge garden filled with flowers that Amy was sure couldn't possibly grow in this climate.

"So we're in Maine?" She asked, inspecting a large plant which she was pretty sure didn't grow outside of the Amazon.

"Yes, Maine, it's where they invented earmuffs you know," The Doctor said, he continued on with random facts about the northern state, which both Rory and Amy tuned out.

"So," Amy said, taking Rory's hand, "2008, we've just started dating."

Rory laughed, "Yup."

The Doctor seemed to have realized the couple wasn't paying attention anymore and turned to watch them, walking backwards. "I was just saying how they've been have a problem with ghosts."

"What, really?" Amy was immediately paying attention again.

The Doctor just grinned and nodded.

"Great, vampires, creepy dolls, and now ghosts," Rory groaned, "What're you trying to do? Cover all the nightmares? You even took us to the nightmare hotel."

"Wasn't my fault," The Doctor mumbled, "But still," He grinned, "Ghosts! And they don't seem like normal ghosts anyways. A ghost is just an imprint left on the area- haunting. Normally just one person or being… but this. Ha, this is different."

"So you're saying this is an alien ghost," Rory rolled his eyes, "Of course."

"No, well I don't know," The Doctor admitted, "I only just heard it from the English teacher. Apparently, the Headmaster fell to his death 'cause he saw something. No one knows what, but they've been seeing things too. Different for every person. So, we're going to check it out."

"Great, more investigations," Rory said.

Amy smiled, "So how're we going to do this?" They had reached the front doors- large, wooden, double doors with a large, ornate locker.

The Doctor just grinned and knocked.

They heard running feet from behind the door followed by the creak of the door being swung open. A young boy stuck his head out.

"Hello?" He said, staring at the three newcomers.

"Hello, we're here to see Headmistress Trails," The Doctor said, "She knows me, Jonathon Smith." He glanced over at Rory and Amy, hoping they got the message to call him by his alias.

Amy gave a tiny nod, showing she understood.

"Alright, be right back," The boy ran off, returning a minute later, "She's in her office."

"Thanks," The Doctor grinned.

The boy just nodded before running off.

The Doctor led them over to a door on the right. A plaque beside it told them it was the Headmaster's office, underneath there was a hastily scribbled note- _Headmistress Alice Trails_.

"Now, just play along," The Doctor said as he opened the door.

They walked into a medium sized room that was bare but for the large desk in the middle a few chairs in the corner and in front of said desk. A woman sat behind the desk, she seemed to be in her mid-thirties and the only thing striking about her appearance were her bright blue eyes.

"Ah, hello Mr. Smith," She smiled at the Doctor, "I hope you had a good night's stay."

"Oh, hello, yes, it was very nice… the room service could've been better," The Doctor said.

The woman gave a bemused smile, "Mr. Smith, there is no room service at the hotel."

"Exactly," The Doctor said with a grin, "So, you said something about vacancies, and I think I have the perfect couple," He moved to the side to let the woman see Amy and Rory.

"Hello," She stood and stretched her hand out, "I'm Alice Trails, Assistant Head-sorry, Headmistress of St. Aquinas."

Rory took the proffered hand, "I'm Rory Williams, and this is my wife, Amy."

Amy nodded and smiled, "Hello."

The Doctor continued, "You said you needed a nurse, well- Rory here's one and his wife was a secretary at a local company in the town where they used to live."

Rory shot the Doctor a panicked look before nodding in agreement.

"That's wonderful," Alice said with a smile, "I'll just need to look over your qualifications and just a quick little interview, we're very short-staffed here at the moment."

"Yes, here you are," The Doctor handed over his psychic paper, "Those are Amelia's," After a minute, the Headmistress handed them back. He tossed the paper to his left hand behind his back, "And these are Rory's."

Alice read Rory's 'qualifications' and nodded, "Yes, well, those seem fine. Could I just speak to each of you in private, I trust Mr. Smith's recommendation of you, but we still need to make sure. How about you first, Mrs. Williams?"

Rory and the Doctor exited the room.

"So now we're getting jobs?" Rory asked and at the Doctor's nod he continued, "You do realize the only real experience I've had as a nurse was in a coma ward?"

"Yes, but you seem to do a good job if we find some unconscious person," The Doctor said.

"But this is different," Rory said, "You do realize that the nurse is normally a woman… who takes care of _concious_ patients, and the students sometimes go to her if they need someone to talk to?"

"You're good at that too," The Doctor said, "You're good at listening."

Rory sighed, seeing he wouldn't get anywhere with this. He resigned himself to silence and waited for Amy to come out.

* * *

><p>Amy walked out of the room and nodded towards Rory, "She just wants to know a bit about what you've done before."<p>

Rory nodded, "Okay, see you in a bit," and walked past her.

"Yeah, see you," Amy smiled at him, before going over to stand next to the Doctor, "Why did you do this?"

"Do what?" he answered, feigning ignorance.

"This, getting us jobs in some boarding school," Amy said, "Without asking."

"Well, I needed to be inside the school, and since you insisted on coming, you needed to be too," The Doctor said, "She mentioned the vacancies so I thought you'd do fine. You can type, right?"

Amy rolled her eyes, "It's just the fact that you didn't really tell us what we were going to be doing."

"Well, now you know," The Doctor said, "Besides- it's only for a few days."

"She mentioned you were a new hire," Amy said, "What job did you get?"

"I'm teaching history," The Doctor grinned, "I did it once," The he frowned, "That wasn't too fun, I ended up being chased by a little girl with a red balloon. You know… being human's rubbish."

"You were human," Amy said, staring.

"For a bit," The Doctor admitted, "I had to hide from these people… Family of Blood."

"And you chose to be a teacher?"

"I didn't really have a choice," The Doctor said, "I didn't remember being a Time Lord."

"Right," Amy said, not knowing whether to believe him or not. "So, this ghost. Any ideas?"

"A lot actually," The Doctor said, "But… I just want a closer look, then I'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"So, you didn't know about this when you came here did you?" Amy asked.

"Nope," He replied, looking at the ornate chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, "Just knew I was supposed to be here. Heard about this just about as soon as I landed."

"Who is it?" Amy asked, "The person you're supposed to meet."

"Mm," The Doctor leaned against the staircase, "This school must be expensive," He noted, taking in the obviously expensive decorations in the hall.

"Well, you haven't gotten any better at changing the subject," Amy muttered, frowning, "Doctor… really, who is it?"

The Doctor looked up, frowning a frown identical to Amy's. He just shook his head.

Amy sighed, seeing she wasn't going to get anywhere with this, so she changed subject, "So, just how new are you?"

"She hired me yesterday," The Doctor informed her.

"But she trusts you enough to accept your word that two complete strangers will work fine?" Amy asked. "Why?"

"Another reason I want to be here," The Doctor said, "I mean, people seem to trust me... but I practically walked in, said hello, and got the job. Not sure why."

"You think she might be up to something," Amy smiled, "You do, don't you?"

"Maybe," The Doctor said, "Or she could just be an innocent Assistant Headmistress promoted because of the death of her superior and really needs some help running the school."

"Or she could be behind all this," Amy said, "She could be controlling the students, getting them to do something she wants... using them as slaves. See," She looked over at him, "I pay attention."

"She could be, but I met some aliens using children as slaves," The Doctor said, "They were big bat people. No I'm not sure... That's why I wanted you to take the secretary position, find something out."

Amy was about to reply, but was interrupted by Alice's office door opening.

"Well, I think you two will do just fine," Alice said as Rory walked over to join his wife and friend, "It will help a lot to have the two of you here. Amy, could I just speak to you for a moment, I just want to make sure you know your way around our systems, it should take about an hour."

"No problem," The Doctor said, "I'll take Rory over to the hotel and get them settled in."

"Alright," Alice said and the men left, not before Rory said he would come to pick Amy up after an hour, the older woman turned to Amy, "Come in here, it shouldn't be too hard, it'll just make it easier tomorrow, when you start."

Amy followed her into the office, silently cursing the Doctor for talking her into this. She hated typing.

* * *

><p><strong>6:23 pm 15 September 2008<strong>

**St. Aquinas', Maine**

The large, rented van screeched to a halt in front of the large, gothic building. The setting sun was hidden behind the mansion, giving the building a dark halo. That, accompanied with the tales of ghosts, gave Ianto a sense of foreboding as the Torchwood team jumped out of the van.

They were greeted at the door by a familiar face.

"Hello Jack," Martha Jones smiled at him. She nodded to the rest of the team, "UNIT is trying to stay out of this as much as possible at the moment, Emery's is still not too happy with us about that Crevian infestation."

"Yeah, we had to clean up after you," Jack said in mock annoyance.

"Yeah well, thank you," Martha said, pushing the large double doors open, "The problem is, they aren't too happy with us, so we've had some trouble working with St. Aquinas' since what they heard from Emery's isn't too good."

"You're a government agency," Ianto said, "Why-"

"I'm the only higher-up who's dealing with this sort of thing," Martha said, "The rest of UNIT, well we're spread thin. This past month has been really busy. UNIT just asked me to sort of… liason with you, since I'm one of the few people who know you," She nodded towards Jack.

"Busy?" Owen said, "We've been sitting around for the past two weeks trying to find more creative ways of folding paper airplanes. We've had nothing."

"This stuff is really classified," Martha said, "I don't even know the basics of the least-classified of them."

"So, now that we're here, what's up?" Jack asked.

"Like I said in the email," Martha began, "This school's been having haunting, or something similar, but the never reported it. Apparently, two nights ago, the Headmaster was fed up with it and decided to call the police, thinking it was some pranksters, one of the student scaring the younger kids. Ten minutes later he's found sprawled in the middle of the hall, having fallen over the banister."

"Those stairs go only one floor up," Owen said, looking around the large entrance hall.

"He fell headfirst," Martha clarified, "I've talked to the new headmistress, she's putting together a packet of all the information on staff, and students at the moment. I've got the faculty here," She pointed to a small pile of papers sitting on a table next to the wall. "I've got rooms booked at the hotel in town, there were only two rooms open, sorry," She glanced guiltily at Owen. "So we can start here, or I can just introduce you to the Headmistress and we can head to the hotel."

"The second option's probably better," Tosh spoke up, "We're still on Cardiff time, and it's about midnight over there."

"I slept on the plane over, so I can probably start on these," Ianto said, pointing to the stack of papers.

"Right, that's a plan," Jack said, "So, can we meet this headmistress?"

Martha nodded and headed over to a door on the right. She raised her hand to knock, but stopped when the door swung open.

"Thanks for your help," A woman with her back to the group said, she had a strong Scottish accent, and vivid red hair, "When should I come in? Seven?"

"Seven thirty should be fine now that you're all set up," Came another woman's voice.

The first one turned around and was revealed to be a pretty, young, round-faced woman.

"Oh, sorry," She said, moving to walk around the group, but was stopped when the other woman approached.

"Miss Jones, I trust you got the files on the faculty alright?" She was an older woman with brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"Yes, I did, I just wanted to introduce you to the team that'll be investigating the school," Martha said professionally, "This is Jack Harkness, head of the group," She motioned to Jack, "And these are Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, and Toshiko Sato. Right, and this," She turned to the Torchwood team, "Is Alice Trails, newly appointed Headmistress of St. Aquinas'."

"Nice to meet you," Jack smiled and shook Alice's hand.

"Good to meet you," The woman replied, "Oh, and this is my new secretary, I'll need to get her files to you. Amelia, this is the group investigating our troubles, so could you make sure tomorrow, to get them anything they need?"

"I will," Amy said, then looked at her watch, "I'm sorry, I've got to go, Rory's picking me up."

"It's alright," Alice smiled at the younger woman.

"How long has she worked here?" Ianto asked, curious. The girl seemed familiar.

"She was just hired," Alice said, "Amelia Williams and her husband Rory Williams, he's the new nurse, they both start tomorrow."

"Yes, well thank you for your time, it was nice to meet you," Jack said, "We'd better head over to the hotel, we had a long plane ride."

If Alice found anything strange about the investigating team taking a plane, she didn't say anything, "Yes well, good night." She smiled and watched them leave. As they left, Ianto picked up the stack of papers from the table in the hall.

He went to follow the others, but as he reached the door, he heard someone behind him. He turned.

No one was there. Ianto shrugged and turned around, then froze. He thought he had seen someone, he looked back.

It was a woman. A strangely familiar woman.

He couldn't see her well, she was hidden in the shadows.

_"Ianto." _ The voice seemed to come from all around him. Again- the voice was intensely familiar, but too distorted for Ianto to put a finger on it.

"Ianto!" The shout came from outside, "Coming?" It was Jack.

Ianto looked back into the hall. The woman was gone.

The Welshman walked out the doors. This was going to be an interesting case.

* * *

><p><strong>6:33 15 September 2008<strong>

**St. Aquinas', Maine**

Michael watched out of the window as the six strangers exited the building, the last one taking longer than the others. When he finally emerged, he looked shaken.

Michael knew what that meant- the man in the suit had seen it. It was time.

The haunting were starting again.

**Again- thanks for reading... hope it was better than the last chapter and that it's making sense up to this point. Please review! Questions, critic****ism is fine, I'm always trying to get better at writing and once again, thanks for reading this.**_  
><em>


	3. First NightDay

**Chapter 2**

**The First Night/Day**

**Part 1- The First Night**

**Marksborough, Maine**

**10:47 pm  
><strong>

Ianto sat alone on the hotel's expansive, glassed-in porch. It gave an amazing view of the surrounding forests, as it faced away from the town and the hotel was on the outskirts. The town itself was a ten minutes drive away from the school and a five minute walk from the hotel.

He paused in his readings to look out of the glass ceiling. He had spent so much time in London and Cardiff he had forgotten what the night sky in the country looked like. They weren't near any large cities, the town itself had less than two thousand occupants, one hundred of which lived at the school.

The stars twinkled at him and he sighed.

He looked back at the packet he was reading.

_Alice Trails_

Under position Assistant Headmistress was typed but crossed out by pen. Underneath was scribbled, Headmistress. Looking at the date she was appointed Ianto found it to be just two days ago, when the first Headmaster had died.

No wonder she was busy.

Ianto slowly worked his way through the packet, nothing standing out. When he had finished, he tidied up and headed up to the room he was supposed to share with Jack and Owen.

He knocked politely on the door labeled 217 and waited for one of the occupants to open the door, moving closer to it as a young man passed him in the small hallway. The door opened.

It was Owen.

"Thank God," He let Ianto in, "Jack's been going on about the TV service here."

"No, that was you," Jack corrected, "I was going on about _you_ complaining. You know," He addressed Ianto, "I don't think Owen here likes anything. He hates the country, he hate America, he hates me, he hates you, he hates the weevils."

"You try being followed around by those things," Owen said, "I know it makes it easier to catch them but it's a pain in the ass having a huge, ugly weevil following you around."

"And some people say facing death changes a person for the better," Ianto said, handing Jack the papers he had read, "There's nothing really big in there. Alice Trails was hired seven months ago along with a nurse and a gardener, both of them left a week ago. Nothing much, all the other teachers have been here over a year, except those three new hires,"

"About those three," Jack said, "Martha just sent a note saying Trails couldn't find the information on the three, she was going to give us their qualifications until her new secretary could file their information."

"Kay, I'll just get those when she's done," Ianto said, hiding a frown. He wanted to know as much as he could about the new secretary. There was something familiar about her, and he didn't like not being able to remember. Ianto wondered if the other two had any idea, "Did she look familiar to you? The secretary."

"No," Jack said, sitting down on one of the double beds, "Why?"

"Just wondering," Ianto replied, sitting down on the other bed, "Right. Are either of you planning on sleeping?"

Owen just shook his head and resumed flipping through the ten channels on the television. Jack turned to Ianto but the Welshman cut him off before he could speak.

"And I mean _sleep_ sleep, as in sleeping… alone," Ianto glared half-heartedly at Jack. The immortal just laughed and held up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, just joking."

Owen rolled his eyes and Ianto proceeded to get ready for a shower and then sleep.

Across the hall, Tosh and Gwen were doing the same. Neither of them noticed the dark shape move past their window.

* * *

><p><strong>10:43 pm<strong>

Rory couldn't get to sleep.

After they had unpacked and settled into the hotel room, the Doctor had left to go to the TARDIS to run some scans, as he claimed. Amy and Rory had gotten ready for bed and watched some television.

It hadn't been long before both of them were yawning loudly, and Rory had decided it was time to get some sleep.

Except he couldn't.

Amy was next to him, sleeping soundly, smiling slightly in her sleep.

Ten minutes more of lying there, Rory decided to go for a walk outside. The moon was nearly full and should give enough light for what he planned to do. He had seen a nice, medium-sized garden out in the back of the hotel that went up right to the edge of the forests that dominated the area.

Rory pulled on a shirt quickly and quietly, trying not to disturb his sleeping wife, and, after pulling his shoes on and finding a warm jacket, left the room.

He looked back at the door, making sure to remember the number- 211. He headed off down the hall, looking for the stairs they had taken to come up to their room earlier. He passed another man in the hallway, squishing himself against the wall to pass him in the tiny hallway.

Jogging down the stairs, Rory came to an exit and walked out into the beautiful garden.

What he suspected was an already spectacular garden in the daytime was just magnificent at night. The exotic plants, similar to the school's as Amy had pointed out earlier, reflected the moonlight in just the perfect way to make it seem as though the whole area was glowing.

Rory wandered for a few minutes, relaxed. The night was cool, but not freezing, just the perfect temperature for a moonlight stroll.

He didn't really pay attention to where he was going, he just was following a small path that led away from the hotel, parallel to the road. He might have been heading towards the school, but he wasn't sure.

About ten minutes later, he saw two people walking towards him, coming from where he now determined the school to be.

The couple was holding hands and laughing. Rory thought it seemed a bit cheesy, but they seemed happy, who was he to care?

As they drew near, Rory thought he recognized the voices, he wasn't sure, but they seemed _pretty_ familiar.

He raised a hand in greeting, just to be ignored. By now, he could hear the two speaking clearly.

"Come on, he won't notice," The man was whining.

"I bet he will," The woman replied.

"We'll be out of there in five minutes, promise," The man replied.

"But you'll probably mess up, or he'll just be awake," The woman said, stopping.

"If he is, we'll just run," The man said, "I'll take us away as quick as I can. The TARDIS'll probably take us to somewhere like Paris. I'd like that… Paris. Haven't been there in a while, and that was during the French Revolution…"

Rory frowned, he now knew exactly who the voices belonged to, but he was sure the Doctor was in the TARDIS, and Amy was safe in bed…asleep. Not wandering around having a suspiciously romantic moonlight walk with her old friend.

Rory backed down the path slowly, keeping within hearing distance, but hoping they wouldn't see him. He wanted to know what was going on.

"I thought you were sure," The Doctor said.

"I am," Amy replied, "But I just don't want to take the risk."

"You've been taking risks your whole life, how's this one any different?"

"He's my husband." Amy said, sighing.

"So?"

"As in… he loves me."

"And you don't, that should make it easier." The Doctor said.

Rory nearly tripped over his own feet at that. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He though that was behind Amy… he had really thought she… Maybe she would deny it. He waited impatiently for her reply.

"It should… but I think he actually does love me," She said, "But I still like him, as a friend."

"What!" Rory couldn't help it, he didn't believe any of this.

The two froze, the Doctor glaring, and Amy looking startled.

"Rory?"

"Amy! What are you talking about?" Rory asked furiously.

"The truth," the Doctor said. Rory was too angry to notice how cheesy the other two were still sounding.

"What?"

"Rory," Amy said, "There's something I have to tell you… I don't love you… I love him." She looked at the Doctor in the way she normally looked at Rory.

"I don't believe this," Rory said backing away, "You said you were behind tha-" He stared. Both the Doctor and Amy had vanished. He ran forward.

They were gone.

Rory stared, not sure whether to start looking for them, or just run away. He was positive he hadn't blinked or looked away. So where had they gone?

The stories the Doctor had told them came to Rory's mind. _Ghosts, but not ghosts._

He decided on the second option.

He ran.

* * *

><p>Michael sat quietly on Jacob's bed, staring out the window as the trees waved back and forth in the storm. There wasn't any lightning or thunder, but that didn't make this storm any less dangerous. If a tree fell on the road leading to the village, St. Aquinas' would be isolated for days. If wind blew over a power line, or a tree knocked one down, they would be without power for a week.<p>

He moved to a more comfortable position- legs crossed with his back against the wall, he put the pillow on the far end of the bed.

The ancient house creaked as it was battered by the rain and wind.

Michael couldn't help but hope that a tree would fall on the wing of the building that housed the classrooms. If that happened, they would hold class outside, on the lawn. Michael hated being indoors, that's why he loved this school, with its expansive grounds the students were allowed to explore on the weekends- when their homework was done, of course. It reminded him of where he was from, the better side of it, at least.

He moved over to the side of the bed and slid off it, bored of watching the storm. He made sure to place the pillow back at the head of the bed. Jacob wasn't very mean, but Michael didn't want to be caught sitting on the older boy's bed.

Michael moved quietly over to his bed, taking care to dodge the weak floorboards. Aaron Larcksty, the dorm head would give him hell if Michael woke him up. Unfortunately for all the boys on the hall, Larcksty was a light sleeper.

Not noticing the figure in the doorway, he pulled himself onto the tall bed. He moved around to set his alarm clock.

He froze.

"Derik?" He gasped, staring at the older boy. Derik was smiling, his dirty-blond hair falling into his vivid silver eyes. He was medium height, but so skinny and thin it made him seem taller.

"Hey Mikey," The older boy grinned, "Long time, no see."

"Derik… how?" Michael jumped off his bed, moving across the room. This wasn't possible. Derik was… "You… you-"

But he was here. Maybe Michael had dreamed it. He did have a history of nightmares. Especially here.

"Mike, I know what you're thinking, stop making things up," Derik frowned at him.

"But, He- He got you," Michael stuttered.

Derik shook his head frowning, "No, he didn't. Mike, you know how I hate it when you lie. Don't do it."

"I'm sorry, I won't-"

"You will," Derik was glaring at him now, "I can't keep forgiving you like this."

Michael's heart seemed to not want to beat any longer. How could Derik take this one thing away? The one thing that was most important to Michael? His trust.

"I won't," Michael wanted Derik to smile again, not this alien look of anger marring his pale features.

"You will," Derik crossed his arms.

_No. No, not like Him, you can't be like Him._ Michael was frozen.

A floorboard creaked outside of the room. Just like the night before.

"There you are," He snarled. Michael backed away, hitting his back on the bed. Derik moved over to Jacob's bed as He stalked in.

"Derik, why-" Michael tried to say, but was grabbed by Him. His large hand wrapped tightly around Michael's, He pulled hard, throwing Michael to the ground.

"That'll teach you to run away," He snarled, again, the smell of alcohol washed over Michael. He whimpered and tried to crawl to the older boy.

Derik pushed him away.

"Derik!" Michael was crying now. Why was Derik doing this? Why was he abandoning him?

"Shut up," The older boy said, taking a hold of Michael's wrist, just like He always had.

The man stalked towards the boys, holding His arm back, ready to smack Michael backhanded.

"No," Michael whimpered, struggling for the first time ever to get out of Derik's arms.

The hand moved back, pausing for a moment before it began its downward swing.

Michael shut his eyes, ready for the external pain and trying to bury his internal one.

"Hey! Michael... Michael! Wake up!"

Michael was shaken awake. As he opened his eyes, he stared right into the face of his roommate, Jacob, and standing next to him.

Aaron Larcksty.

"You alright?" Jacob asked, concerned, "You were screaming and you almost fell off the bed. You having a nightmare, or something?"

Michael nodded, still staring at the dorm head.

"Right, thanks for waking me up kid," Larcksty snarled, "Some of us are trying to sleep here."

"Sorry," Michael muttered, "Won't happen again."

"Yeah right," Larcksty snorted, "Twitchy little git you are, I bet I'm gonna be in here every other night. I'm dorm head, not the baby-sitter."

After another muttered 'sorry' from Michael, Aaron left.

"Can't let him push you around," Jacob said, moving back to his own bed. "Just makes him feel better about himself. He's just a bully 'cause he doesn't feel secure 'bout anything else."

Michael gave a small smile. He was one of the few younger boys to have an older student as a roommate. "I'll try."

"Kay, and I hate to say it…" Jacob said, "But he's right, you were making a huge rackit, and we need our sleep. So listen, you have another nightmare, tell me about it and I'll try 'n help, kay? Besides- helps to talk 'bout it."

Michael nodded, smiling at the other boys kindness. "You remind me of a friend I had."

"Good friend?" Jacob asked, pulling the covers over his legs before turning on his side to see Michael.

"Yeah, real good."

"What was his name?"

"Derik." Michael said softly.

"Cool name," Jacob grinned, "Where's he now?"

Michael frowned and choked back tears.

"Oh," Jacob said softly, "Sorry."

"Not your fault," Michael said softly before leaning over, and switching the bedside lamp off. He curled up under the covers, closed his eyes, and prayed he wouldn't wake up in another nightmare.

* * *

><p><strong>Part 2- The First Day<strong>

**6:58 am  
><strong>

"This place is beautiful," Amy said quietly as she and Rory walked quietly out of the hotel and down the short path that led to a small parking area.

"Yeah, it really is," Rory smiled, "Reminds me of that one moon or something, with the plants that would glow when the person near them was happy."

Amy smiled, "Yeah, that place was pretty cool."

"Cool? What's cool?" The Doctor bounded up to them, probably from where he had been hiding in the TARDIS which was parked a hundred yards to the right, out of view behind a thick grove of pines.

"Nothing," Amy said, "Where've you been?"

"In the TARDIS, scanning the area," The Doctor replied before turning to her husband, "Rory, any repeats of last night?"

"No," Rory shook his head. On his way back to the hotel the night before, he had run into the Doctor and had told him, nothing too specific, what he had seen.

"Well, if it happens again, just tell me," The Doctor said.

"If what happens again?" Amy asked, "Rory?"

"I saw something last night," Rory said, "It wasn't really a _ghost_, but it wasn't real either."

"What was it?" She asked.

"Don't remember," He lied, "It was really late."

"Okay," Amy said, not believing him.

They walked down the road, chatting about previous adventures, taking the time to catch up.

When the school came into sight, Amy looked over at the Doctor.

"So what's it you want us to do?" She asked, "I get that we're supposed to look for anything odd, but is there anything you really want us to do?"

"Just keep an eye out, anything weird just tell me," The Doctor said, then grinned, "And if I'm in class, just send me an email, and I'll get it," He grinned even wider, "I've got my own email now! It's jsmi-"

"Yeah Doctor, I know," Amy said, "Secretary, remember? You're the one that got me hired."

"Yeah, still not sure why, or how," The Doctor admitted, "Another thing you might want to look into, Amelia- Why does she trust me so much? I mean people normal trust me… and tell me everything about their lives.." He frowned, then looked back at Amy, "But this is a bit beyond that."

"Right I will," Amy moved closer to Rory as a van drove past, stopping as the driver waited for the wrought iron gates to swing open, "Oh, and just so you know, everyone has an email like that. For me it's just awilliams and Rory's is rwilliams."

"Right," The Doctor nodded, dodging his way clumsily around the closing gates.

After the short walk up the gravel, loop driveway, the Doctor stopped by the door, "Well, I guess I'll see you in a couple hours. Let me know if you find out anything," He pushed open the door and walked into the school.

Amy and Rory followed more slowly.

"Um, see you in a couple hours then…" Rory said awkwardly, remembering his walk from the night before.

"Yeah, see you," Amy smiled, pushing open the door to her new office, ready for what the day might bring.

* * *

><p><strong>7:15 am<strong>

"Oi! Watch your driving!" Owen shouted as Jack swerved around the three people walking on the side of the small road, big enough for only one car. Jack thought he recognized the new secretary, but he was too focused on trying to get used to driving in an American car.

"Sorry, would you like to drive?" He retorted.

"Actually I would," Owen said, "Oh wait, I forgot. _Someone_ forgot to not throw out my license when I died," He looked over his shoulder to glare at Ianto, "I still need that, you know."

"It'd be a bit hard explaining that to the DVLA**(A/N- as I'm American, I'm not too sure if this is correct, in America it would be the DMV)**,'yeah, this guys been dead for three months, we'd like to get him a driver's license," Jack said.

"What's got Owen riled up?" Tosh asked Ianto as quietly as possible.

"He spent the night with Jack in the lobby," Ianto said, "They were arguing about the TV last night and I told them to leave. I was trying to sleep."

"Ah," Gwen said, holding back a smile, "No wonder."

Owen had been having trouble coping with the fact that he was technically dead, and didn't actually need to do the human things such as sleeping and eating. It was actually useless for him to try. It ended up making the doctor even grumpier than usual.

The car stopped more gently than the day before, but still spraying gravel over the grass on either side of the driveway.

Ianto pushed open the door on his left and jumped out, moving behind the vehicle to open the trunk and grab the cases containing items they might need, specifically Tosh's scanning equipment and Owen's medical kit.

"Here, I've got it," Gwen grabbed the lighter but larger case that contained Owen's medical scanners.

Ianto nodded to her in thanks and they followed the rest of the team into the school. They passed three teenage boys leaving the school. Ianto watch them head down the driveway and head off the grounds in the direction of Marksborough. He turned around and followed Gwen inside.

"Hey!" Martha Jones grinned at them as she walked out of a nearby corridor, "You lot get a good night's sleep?"

"They did," Jack said, motioning to the three who actually needed the sleep, "Where're you staying? We didn't see you at the hotel."

"I'm staying here," Martha said, "I'm over in the east wing, where all the faculty who don't live in Marksborough stay during the school year. So, you guys ready to begin?"

"Yeah," Jack looked around, "We were thinking, Owen could go around checking people out, medically."

"See if there're any drugs in their systems, or any sort of abnormalities," Owen informed the other doctor, "Any uniform abnormalities throughout the whole school might point us in the right direction."

"Good idea," Martha said, "I won't be able to help you, I've got a Skype call with my boss this morning, wants to know how you lot are working out here. I'll be able to work with you more this afternoon."

"Okay," Jack turned to Gwen, Ianto and Tosh, "I was thinking you three, well mainly you two," He pointed to Gwen and Ianto, "Could go interview the people who work here, maybe some kids if you have the time." The two nodded, "And you," He pointed to Tosh, "Could scan for any alien activity."

"Okay," Tosh moved to take her equipment from Ianto, "Oh, Jack, I thought it might help if I went around with Owen. You know how the hub can track alien lifeforms on the move? Well I found a way to duplicate that into a handheld device, it just doesn't cover an area as big as Cardiff, but it should cover the school. It's just not so precise, I have to be really close to the alien to be able to tell what species they are, if we've met them."

"Good idea," Jack said, "And good work. Right, you lot go do those things. I'm going to check out the building and the grounds. Explore some."

His team nodded and headed off. Jack moved to leave, but paused and turned to Martha.

"Seen him? Since the last time we talked, I mean," He asked.

"No- Well yes," Martha smiled, "Sorry, it was almost right after I left you guys. Had some trouble with those ATMOS systems, in the cars."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Jack said, "So was he behind that? Choking the Earth to death?"

"It was this race called the Sontarans," Martha said.

"Yeah, I've heard of them, clone race," Jack said, "Really ugly, love fighting."

"That's them," Martha smiled, "Well, he managed to stop them," The smile slipped off her face, "An eighteen year old boy died to stop them."

"I'm sorry," Jack said, meaning it.

"Yeah, well, he saved the world from being choked and used to create millions more Sontarans," Martha said.

"So, he still alone?" Jack asked.

"No," Martha shook her head, "He's traveling with this woman, Donna," She laughed, "Donna Noble. She's good for him."

"You think he'll come here?" Jack asked.

"No," Martha said, "Don't think so. Couple reasons. A- not sure whether this is alien or not, and B- it isn't in England. He is the worst driver, we only managed to go to America twice, the rest of the times he tried we ended up in Scotland or London. And don't even talk about the time periods, we'd always end up somewhere two thousand years late."

Jack grinned, "I know what you mean."

"Well, I've still got his number, if we really need him," Martha said, "When I left, I gave him my phone. That's how I got him to come, when we were dealing with the Sontarans."

"Well, that's always an option," Jack said, "but like you said, might not even be aliens."

"Yeah, oh, darn, it's almost seven thirty, I've got to go," She said, going back down the hall she had come from, "They serve lunch at twelve thirty in the cafeteria, I'll see you there."

Jack nodded and headed up the stairs in the entrance hall, ignoring the sound of the fronts doors opening once more, ready to investigate.

* * *

><p><strong>7:20 am<strong>

"Michael! Wake up!"

Michael was shaken awake by his roommate.

"What?"

"It's almost seven thirty," Jacob said, "Don't you have a class?"

Michael shot up in bed, "Crap." He jumped out of bed and ran to the closet, "Why didn't my alarm go off?"

"Don't know," Jacob said, looking at the clock, "It battery powered?"

Michael shook his head as he grabbed some pants and a clean, white collared shirt.

"Weird," Jacob muttered, "Hey, the caf's closed now, so I grabbed you a muffin."

"Thanks," Michael said as Jacob put the food on his bedside table. The younger boy noticed that his roommate wasn't dressed in the school uniform- khaki pants, black shoes, white collared shirt with a blue and silver striped tie. "Don't _you_ have class?"

"Nope," Jacob said, "Inter-nat relations is cancelled 'cause the Headmaster's… gone, haven't had Med class since Nurse Abby left and Ms. Trails can't teach our 'clase de espanol, francois, e latin', she's too busy with her new…duties. So me, Kyle and Devin got permission to go to Marksborough."

"Cool," Michael said as he put on his tie and started eating the blueberry muffin. While he was in eighth grade, Jacob was in eleventh, meaning he was allowed to visit the town without an adult. The underclassmen had to wait for the designated day (every other Sunday) to visit the town, and that weekend's trip had been cancelled due to the Headmaster's death.

"So, you need anything?" Jacob asked, "I could get you something, need a jacket? It gets cold up here in the winter."

"Yeah, probably," Michael said through a mouthful of muffin.

"You're an adult small right?" Jacob said, hopping off his bed and grabbing his wallet from his jacket pocket.

"Mm hmm," Michael mumbled, grabbing his back pack and shoving books into it.

"Right, see you at dinner," Jacob said, leaving.

Michael went over to the window after he had pulled on his shoes, sitting on his roommate's bed to tie the laces.

He watched as Jacob, Kyle and Devin exited the school and walk around the van parked in front of the school. Michael recognized the van from the night before. He also recognized the man standing near the vehicle, holding a metal case as the one who had seen it. Soon the man walked forward and was obscured from view.

Michael walked out of his room, ready for class, his bag over his shoulder, but stopped when he heard voices.

A man was talking about drugs and abnormalities. Michael had no idea what he was talking about, but he was curious and the boy settled himself and the top of the steps to listen.

Then they mentioned aliens. He almost gasped, but covered his mouth.

_Ailens? _ What would they have to do with the haunting?

He listened as the group dispersed, leaving only the woman staying at the school and a man Michael guessed to be the leader of the newcomers.

Once again, they mentioned aliens and something that sounded suspiciously like time travel.

These people are crazy.

Michael noticed the two had stopped talking and there were footsteps coming up the stairs. He looked around- nowhere to go.

He walked down the hall, halfway to his bedroom before turning around and heading back to the stairs.

A tall man wearing a long, dark-blue coat came into view, he walked around Michael and headed off down the hall. Michael watched him go, before heading down the stairs.

The front door was open, and three people were standing in the entrance hall. The one who was talking had a English accent and the strangest choice of clothing Michael had ever seen. He was accompanied by a man and a woman, when the woman spoke, she had a Scottish accent.

Michael had made it to the foot of the stairs and was heading off to his first class- history, when the first man walked up to him from one of the nearby halls he had disappeared into a minute before.

"Oh, hello," He grinned at Michael, "I'm the D- Mr. Smith. I'm a bit lost," He whispered as though confiding in Michael, "Can't find my classroom."

"Which one?" Michael asked, he was usually very shy, but something about this man made him feel less shy than normal.

"History." The man grinned, "It's my first day."

"That's my first class," Michael said, "I'm going there right now."

"Thanks," The man said and they headed off.

Michael ignored the now-familiar but still terrifying whisper of sound that followed them down the corridor. Michael knew for a fact He couldn't be here.

But then why did it seem to become more real with every passing day?

Michael shivered and led the new teacher through the school, trying and failing to ignore the sounds.

**Right, got some good news- the play I was in is now over! as in, I've got more time! Yay! So, I hope that chapter wasn't too bad, overall, I think it was fine, but... please review and tell me what _you_ think!**


	4. A Strange Start to a Strange Day

**A/N- Okay, so I found a fanfic that is super similar to this one, ****Undercover**** by Jennie-x, it's actually pretty good, but at this point, my fic might seem really similar- just a little note, it's not, at this point it might be, but I'm not trying to copy said fic… just a little thing I wanted to say, also, I found said story a week after I started my story but I noticed the similarities... so yes… on with the story!**

**Chapter 3**

**A Strange Start to a Strange Day**

**7:32 am- St. Aquinas' School**

**Seventh Grade History Classroom**

"Right, hello!" The new teacher stood at the front of the room, grinning like it was Christmas, "I'm Mr. Smith, your new…" He looked down at the textbook, "Recent World History teacher. Now, I just want to be able to know your names, so let's start with you," He pointed to Kevin Merits who sat at the front, "Give me your name please."

"K-Kevin Merits," Kevin stuttered. Michael sighed, Kevin was afraid of everything- people, insects, birds, public speaking… you name it, he was afraid of it.

"Hello Kevin," Mr. Smith grinned, then motioned for Caleb, who sat behind Kevin, to say his name.

"Caleb Strong," Caleb said. Michael returned to his binder, which was opened to the notes section and started doodling. Caleb was part of Jack Richard's entourage. Jack Richard's was their grade's Bully, although he seemed to think of himself as the 'leader' of the seventh grade.

"Jack Richards," Jack sneered, he was of medium height, but broad-shouldered. It was obvious that as he grew up, he would become a large, strong teenager. The same went for the rest of his entourage.

"Ryan Colmes," Another of Jack's 'friends'.

"Mark Dreves," The last of the entourage.

"Trent Halflings," Michael smiled to himself. Trent was one of the nicest kids in the school, nicest in the seventh grade without a doubt.

There was a pause. Footsteps came up next to Michael's desk.

"Nice drawing."

Michael's head shot up. Mr. Smith was standing over him, looking down at Michael's doodles.

"Sorry sir," Michael said.

"It's alright," Mr. Smith said with a smile, "What's the drawing of?"

"Don't know," Michael lied, trying to subtly cover the drawings with his arm. He had drawn flowers. A couple days before, some of the older boys had found his math binder, which was covered in similar small drawings. They had made fun of him until Miss Trails, the Headmistress had told them off. He didn't want the same thing to happen again with his grade.

"Right, so… name?" Mr. Smith asked.

"Michael Coles," Michael said.

"Nice to meet you Michael Coles," Mr. Smith said, "Thanks for the directions by the way."

Michael nodded and returned to his doodling. Mr. Smith went through the rest of the class- Thomas Lines, Corman Keils, Joshua Gorban, and Chase Coolis. After Chase said his name, Mr. Smith moved back to the front of the classroom.

"You lot are the seventh grade, right?" At their nods he grinned, "Right, since it's my first day of class, how about we do something fun. History-oriented fun," He added. "Soooo… let's see," He flipped through the textbook, "Well, this all seems intensely boring," he tossed the book over his shoulder. The other boys in the class glanced at each other, not knowing whether to judge this man crazy, or to laugh.

"How about something…" Mr. Smith thought for a moment, "Ah! I've got it… ghosts."

Everyone in the class twitched. Michael felt the blood drain out of his face.

"Or… apparitions, something that couldn't possibly be there, but is," Mr. Smith said.

The rest of the boys froze, even Trent, the bravest boy in the class, seemed to be close to fainting from fear.

"Or… not," Mr. Smith said, his smile slipping off his face, "Why don't any of you like that?" He seemed genuinely curious.

"Just don't like ghosts," Jack Richards spoke up.

"Well, alright," Mr. Smith gave up, "How about myths, then."

The boys relaxed visibly, and Mr. Smith started talking.

* * *

><p>An hour and a half later, the seventh grade walked out of history. It had turned out to be a fun class, Mr. Smith seemed to get into the lesson, although Michael wasn't the best at history or myths, he was sure Mr. Smith had mixed up a few myths. Michael was positive Zeus never sailed a barge down the Nile to save Ben Franklin from an alligator Goddess on rampage.<p>

Michael, lost in thought, didn't notice a couple of boys standing in front of him.

"Hey!" Michael jumped as Trent Halflings turned around, "Oh, sorry Mike."

Michael nodded to him, hiding a smile. Of course, Trent would be the one to put the blame on himself, even when it was obvious it was the other person fault.

"Hey… Mike?" Kevin Merits poked his head around Trent's large backpack.

"Hmm?" Michael moved over to the side of the hallway the two boys were standing on.

"You seen it?" Kevin asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, me and Kev… well, when Mr. Smith mentioned the… apparitions…" Trent let the sentence hang. It was perfectly clear to all the boys in the school that something was going on, and the others felt it, but no one had come out and said it. They were all too afraid, especially after what had happened with the Headmaster.

"What about them?" Michael asked. Even though he had known, it still made him feel just the tiniest bit better. He wasn't the only one seeing ghosts.

"I'm gonna tell one of 'em," Kevin said suddenly, "We've got to."

"That's what he was doing though," Trent argued. Michael could now see what the two boys had been so intent on. Kevin wanted to tell the investigators what they knew, and Trent didn't want him to risk it, "Mike, isn't that what it was? He was gonna call the cops."

Michael nodded, but Kevin shook his head.

"But we've gotta tell them, maybe they can stop it," He said, he looked terrified.

"You might end up like the Head," Michael muttered.

Kevin paled at this, "I'll just get Malcolm to do it."

"Yeah, then you won't have your big brother to protect you," Jack sneered, ramming his elbow into the smaller boys side.

"Hey, shut up, will you? Go pick on someone your own size for once," Trent said. He was the biggest of their grade, and towered over the bully.

Jack rolled his eyes, "On second thought, you'll just lose one of your bodyguards." But he didn't do anything else. If Trent said to stop, you did.

"I'm gonna find Malcolm," Kevin said, Michael nodded and headed off to his next class.

* * *

><p>The introductory chemistry class was even more boring than usual. Michael couldn't concentrate, distracting himself much too easily with his small drawings of flowers. He didn't know why he loved drawing them so much, they just seemed so…intricate.<p>

As soon as the bell rang, and hour and a half later, Michael jumped up and started towards the mess hall, hoping to find an empty table to eat his lunch at. It was eleven, which meant lunch time for the middle schoolers. Michael didn't know anyone from the other classes and other than Jacob, none of the other boys in the seventh grade had reached out to Michael. They all seemed happy with their own friends. This left Michael on his own, the closest people he to friends were Trent, who would talk to anyone, and Kevin, who on the first day had noticed that Michael wasn't interested in joining up with 'The Entourage', the overly confident seventh graders who followed their leader, Jack Richards, everywhere.

Michael was almost to the mess hall, late as usual(he liked to walk slow, looking out at the gardens), when he felt a tap on the shoulder. He looked over his shoulder to see a tall man wearing a sharp suit with a dark red collared shirt with a dark tie underneath.

"Yeah?" Michael asked curious, he had to crane his neck to look the man in the eye, he was almost six feet, while Michael was barely five- small for his age.

"Can I have some help?" The man asked, he had a funny accent.

"Um, sure," Michael said, looking back to the doors to the mess hall, there was a certain time you could gain entry, then the doors closed until the next lunch slot- the teacher's. He didn't want to miss lunch, it was eleven fifteen, and the next meal open to seventh graders was at six, with only a short break at three where they could grab a snack from some snack machines in one of the lounges on the senior hall.

"I'm a bit lost," the man said, "Looking for the… biology lab." He looked down at a folder in his hand.

"Oh, it's that way," Michael pointed down the hall the man was standing in, "It doesn't say bio. Says something like physics or marine science, not sure, they're senior classrooms."

"Right, thanks," The man said, before turning and heading back the way he had come.

Michael thought over what he, Kevin and Trent had been talking about minutes before. This man was one of the investigators.

"Uh, sir?" Michael said loudly, before he could stop himself.

The man turned around, expectant.

Michael froze. He couldn't tell. He'd be dead within minutes if he did. Just like the Headmaster. He had to come up with a lie, quick.

"If you're looking for Mr. Crane, he's the bio teacher, he isn't in his room right now, he'd be in the teacher lounge, or the middle school science lab, it's right next door," Michael said, glad he had walked into Mr. Crane talking to the middle school science teacher a few days before. Jacob had told him Mr. Crane hated his lab, said it was too stuffy for his liking.

"Thanks," The man smiled and walked away.

* * *

><p><strong>10:48 am<strong>

Tosh watched as Owen pulled the scanner out of the case.

"Won't hurt a bit," Owen said to the woman sitting in front of him at her desk, "Just a quick check, want to make sure all your medical files are in order, so we can tell if all your files are up to date."

"And you're gonna get it from an iPod?" Rebecca Neil, the math teacher asked.

Tosh hid a smile, that's exactly what she had thought Owen was showing her when he had pulled it out in the autopsy room one day months before. It was an amazing piece of equipment, it could find out a majority of medical facts about the person being scanned in seconds. She had a similar piece of technology in her laptop case, they actually believed the two scanners were invented by the same species. At least, that was Jack's guess.

Tosh wished her scanner would work sooner, but it needed time to familiarize itself with the school and all the biological factors of the area they were in. It would then use the immensely large data base she had loaded with information about Planet Earth to check to see which factors were from Earth and then use the information for Torchwood's data base about alien species to pick out any aliens.

Luckily, it already had a large portion of memory taken up by information taken long before it had floated through the rift. Sadly, Tosh couldn't access it without destroying the device, so she and Jack had decided on using the device for scanning unless they desperately needed information that could be found in the device.

"It's a special sort of iPod," Owen smiled an obviously fake smile. They had already been to four other teachers, all of whom had questioned Owen's ability as a doctor if he relied solely on a piece of technology used to listen to music or surf the web. It wouldn't help to tell them it was a piece of alien technology though, so Owen sat through it.

The teacher rolled her eyes.

"Right, done," Owen stood, he looked at the screen, "Everything seems to be fine Ms. Neil. We've got a couple friends coming round, going to ask a couple questions about what's been happening."

Tosh had been surprised at first, Owen was being surprisingly polite, but after the second teacher she realized why. They were pretending to be a special police division, not a super secret alien fighting agency with their logo on their van.

"Thank you for your time," Tosh smiled sweetly and exited after Owen.

"Right, two more teachers?" Owen asked, "Then lunch for you? It'll about twelve when we're done."

"That's very considerate of you Owen," Tosh said, "I think that'd be great. My scanner might be working by then."

Owen nodded, putting down his medical case to pull a slip of paper with a list of names scribbled on it. "How 'bout the nurse? Rory… Williams."

Tosh nodded, "I think the nurses' office was this way."

Owen picked up his case and followed after Tosh. A minute later, they were standing in front of an open door, showing a small room taken up by a desk with four doors leading to small rooms, two behind the desk and one on either side.

Tosh knocked lightly on the open door, "Hello?"

"Oh, Hold up! Sorry, one moment!" Came a surprisingly accented voice from one of the adjacent rooms. "I'm sorry," The door on the left opened and a young man walked in holding a large cardboard box, "Sorry, getting the medical forms… Um, yeah… what do you need?"

"Hello, Rory?" Tosh asked, smiling politely, "Rory… Williams right?"

"Uh, yeah… why?" Rory asked, putting the box down on top of the desk, knocking a few papers to the floor, "Darn it… sorry… first day…" He knelt down and hurriedly grabbed the papers, shoving them into the box as he stood, "I'll organize that.. later…" He stood awkwardly, waiting for them to speak.

"You're from England?" Tosh asked, noting his accent.

"Um, yeah," Rory said, "Yeah, I am. But my- a friend of me and my wife… he got a job here found out there were openings and so we came here."

"And your wife, that's Amelia right?" Owen asked, looking at the form Ms. Trails had given them earlier.

"Yeah, she's the new secretary and I'm the… nurse," Rory added, he seemed uncomfortable in this position.

"We just need to do a quick scan, make sure your records are current and accurate," Owen said, his voice laced with boredom. Tosh couldn't blame him, scanning every teacher in the school would get dull.

"Um, okay," The nurse said,

Owen set about scanning the young man, thankfully Rory didn't make a fuss and Owen was finished in four minutes. He and Tosh left just as two boys came into the office.

Owen paused for a moment, making a show of redoing the latches on his case, making it seem as though something was stopping the case from closing fully.

"Hello," Rory looked up from where he sitting behind the desk, looking through the forms.

"Er, I've got a headache," The older boy said, obviously uncomfortable with the new nurse.

"Um, right, okay," Rory jumped up, "And you?" He asked the younger boy.

"Hurt myself," The boy muttered, holding out his arm to show a nasty scratch going up the length of his forearm.

"Um, kay, here, take these," Rory rifled through some cabinets and found a box of Tylenol. He handed two pills to the first boy and turned to the second boy.

"Got any water?" The first boy asked, not moving.

"Uh," Rory froze for a second before looking around, "No… sorry, there's a water fountain nearby I think."

The boy shrugged and stayed where he was.

"Yes?" Rory asked as he noticed the boy still standing there.

"Don't you have to take a record of this or something?" The boy asked.

"What?" Rory blanked, "Um, yeah… yeah, I do, er, here- write your name down and the time, date and why you were here, I'll put it in the computer later," He handed the boy a torn piece of scrap paper.

The boy left and Rory turned to the hurt boy. He fixed up the young boys arm quickly and professionally, this time remembering to take record of it.

"Kay, I'm good," Owen stood, shaking Tosh out of her reverie, "You?"

"Oh, okay, yeah," Tosh nodded, smiling. As they left, the smile slipped. It seemed as though the nurse didn't have much experience, she thought the person hiring them would have made sure he could handle it.

"You don't think he's a legitimate nurse do you?" Owen asked, "I stopped back there 'cause I wasn't too sure, now I am. I looked him up last night, since Ianto didn't have his forms. Rory Williams- Leadworth, England- worked in the local hospital… coma ward."

"Think he might have something to do with it?" Tosh asked, speeding up so she was walking next to the dead man.

"Maybe," Owen said, "That, or he's checking it out. But I can't think of anyone other than U.N.I.T. doing that, and they've got Martha… so I'm guessing it's more of the first option."

"He _is_ from England," Tosh conceded, "He might've been involved in Emery's."

"Yeah," Owen nodded, "I'll tell Gwen and Ianto to keep an eye on him and his friends."

"All three?" Tosh asked.

"If he's got something to do with it, his wife might too," Owen said.

Tosh nodded and opened her mouth to ask another question but stopped when she heard a loud beeping coming from her side.

"Wait! Owen! The scanner's finished," Tosh pulled the scanner out of the case and looked at the screen, "Oh."

"What?" Owen asked, turning around and walking back to her.

In answer, Tosh held out the scanner so Owen could read.

_**NO EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIFE-FORMS FOUND**_

_**NO HIGH READINGS OF EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL TRACES**_

"So the thing causing this isn't an alien," Owen said after reading and stepping away.

"No," Tosh said, "It can't be, there would be left over… residue I guess. It would leave a trace, and so far, this isn't picking up anything. But there is a _trace_ of something alien, but it isn't causing this… physically at least. But if you went anywhere in the world you would find at least a tiny trace of alien particles. Stuff keeps floating down to Earth, it leaves traces"

"Right, we'd better let Jack know… no aliens," Owen said, looking unhappy.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy, we get to go home," Tosh said, "Unless Jack finds a reason to stay, we should be back in Cardiff by tomorrow."

"Yeah, but we just wasted a couple days to go to America of all places," Owen complained, "Never liked it here."

"You never like it anywhere," Tosh muttered under her breath as she heard the scanner beeping again. She pulled it out of her pocket and paused as she read the new readings.

Owen continued without realizing his friend had stopped walking beside him, "So there isn't an alien, but we've got a suspicious nurse, a crazy, murderous ghost, U.N.I.T., a Crevian scare… I hope we just leave soon, this sounds less like an investigation and more like something that's going to end up being three weeks worth of paperwork-"

"Owen," Tosh stared down at the device.

"What?" Owe asked, stopping in his tracks to look at her, looking slightly annoyed at her interruption of his rant.

"I think you might be wrong," Tosh said.

"What about?"

"About there not being aliens," Tosh held out the scanner, showing Owen the screen.

"Right," Owen said.

On the screen in helpful bolded, flashing letters was the announcement-

_**Extra-terrestials discovered**_

_**2- known species classification**_

_**3- unknown species classification**_

_**Please wait for further information**_

_**Wait time- 72 minutes**_

The number of aliens under the 'Unknown' category flipped quickly between three and one, the device didn't seem to be able to decide. The same seemed to be happening with the 'Known' category, but the numbers were switching quickly between two and zero.

"So… we've got at least three aliens," Owen said, " Or one, or possibly four. Well. This'll be fun."

* * *

><p><strong>11:39 am<strong>

"Well, goodbye Agent Jones," Crane said. The short, chubby man said, organizing a pile of homework papers he had been fiddling with the whole time Ianto had be talking to him.

Ianto nodded, starting to walk away from the teacher's desk before pausing, thinking of something, "If you hear or see anything, please let me or my colleagues know."

"Of course," The older man said. Ianto nodded farewell to him and headed to the door. This was the third teacher he had talked to and they all said the same thing- they had been asleep when the Headmaster died but had noticed the boys seemed more on edge than usual, even before the death.

Ianto smiled to the teacher and walked out of the room, nearly running into a short, young woman. She had short, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She said, trying to keep a hold on the binders in her arms, "Didn't see you."

"It's alright, wasn't watching where I was going," Ianto said politely, "Would you like some help?" He nodded towards the three binders piled in her arms with a large textbook threatening to slide off the top, and her backpack hanging precariously off one shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks, that'd be great," She gave him two binders and the large textbook, she righted her back pack and pointed down the hall, "I'm heading to the science labs."

"I thought this was a boy's school," Ianto said, trying to start a conversation.

"It is," The woman nodded, "Oh! So why'm I going to class? Haha, yeah, I'm in college at the moment, well I'm taking the year off. Getting experience in the field. Basically, I'm studying to be a teacher, and a position opened up here for an assistant, and I took the year off, next year's my senior year. Oh, I'm Katie Merry by the way."

"Agent Jones," Ianto said, he and the rest of the team had agreed that they would introduce themselves as 'Agent'. It was a long shot, but Jack was hoping that if there was a connection to the Emery's case, the person involved might slip up and Torchwood could catch them easily. Again- a long shot.

"Ooh, 'Agent'," Katie laughed, "Sounds fancy. What sort of agent?"

"Special division of the police," Ianto replied. "They didn't list you under the faculty or staff. My job's looking through the personnel and interviewing them." He explained.

"Oh, no I wouldn't be," She said, "This is just for one semester, and when I say 'Assistant Teacher' I more mean Jacobson's apprentice. Jacobson's the science teacher. So… is this about Corinder's death?"

"Yup," Ianto said, Alexander Corinder was the name of the deceased headmaster.

"Yeah… I didn't know he'd passed until that morning at breakfast," She said, "I'm staying in the teacher's wing, not the student's. That's where he died, the entrance hall. The student's room are around that area. Oh, we're here," she nodded to a door on the left.

"Right, there you go," Ianto gave her the binders and text book after she had opened up the door, "I've got to go, more interviews to do."

"Well, see you 'round, Agent Jones," Katie said with a grin before walking into the classroom.

"Yup, see you," Ianto walked off, looking down at the list in his hands. He checked off Crane's name and looked at the next on the list. One of the new teacher's.

Jonathon Smith.

* * *

><p><strong>11:47 am<strong>

The Doctor sat on his desk, reading through the history textbook.

"Complete rubbish," He muttered, reading through the chapter on the rise of the Roman Empire, specifically Marc Antony and Cleopatra, "She didn't commit suicide! There was a mummy and an alien crocodile, the same one I had to save good old Ben from too! And ooh, I'm rambling again,"

He rubbed his forehead, he was getting a headache.

He thought over the hour before. He had wanted to see the class's reaction to ghosts. It interested to notice that most of the boys, while they flinched when he mentioned ghosts, almost jumped out of their seats at the word apparition and its definition. Except for one.

Michael.

Now, that boy was a mystery. The Doctor couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the boy was off. Michael was extremely small for his age- barely five feet tall, extremely skinny, bright green eyes… nothing that matched any sort of humanoids the Doctor knew of. Possibly a Sericleis, but the boy was too small, the species he was thinking of had an average height of eight feet tall. Maybe he was just a plain old human boy.

Maybe he was the cause?

No.

He'd been too scared at the mention of ghosts. As though he might have had an encounter with one.

The Doctor put that thought in the back of his mind, for later thought. He might go visit the young boy later that day.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. He looked around the room.

"Um, yes! Come in, it's open," He said, snapping the book shut and placing next to him on his cluttered desk.

The door opened slowly and a man walked in.

"Um, hello," The man said. The Doctor hid his surprise. "Mr. Jonathon Smith isn't it?"

"Yes, hello! That's me… John Smith," _And you are Ianto Jones I believe_. The Doctor added in his head. If Ianto was here that meant…

"Well, I just had a few questions for you Sir," Ianto said, " I'm Agent Jones and I work in a special division in the police force. We got a call a day ago about a death here."

"Oh, yes, I heard about that," The Doctor said, "Is he okay?"

"Um, he's dead," Ianto said, not sure how to go about this.

"Oh, well you can never be too sure," The Doctor said, mentally hitting himself for that slip up.

"Yes… well, I just had a few questions," Ianto said, at the Doctor's nod he continued, "Did you hear or see anything around the time of Alexander Corinder's death? And also- what were you doing?"

"Um, let's see," The Doctor thought about it, "What time did he die?"

"Around one in the morning, on the thirteenth, sir," Ianto said politely.

"I think I was asleep," The Doctor said, then paused, "Oh wait, you thought I was _here_ didn't you? Well, this is only my second day…sorry. Actually… first teaching… second day in Maine, well the United States in general."

"Right, I guess that's all then," Ianto said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir." He turned to leaving, pausing when he got to the door, "And, if you hear or see anything, could you let me know?"

"Yes! I will," The Doctor grinned, then remembered something. Maybe he should tell Torchwood, Jack would be in a better position to question the people at the school than the Doctor was, "Oh, Ianto, I'd try asking some of the children, they know more than the teachers." He glanced at the clock, "Oh! Almost twelve! That's lunch! I've got to run, see you 'round." He jumped up and walked briskly out of the room, cringing at his slip up.

* * *

><p>The young Welshman stood quietly in the empty history classroom, listening to the odd history teacher's retreating footsteps.<p>

Maybe Jack's 'long shot' wasn't so far off.

Ianto walked out of the room, off to find Jack.

**Okay, so I hope you liked that chapter, sorry for the long wait- been having tons of school-related problems... ah well... so yesh! I also had writer's block in the middle of Tosh and Owen's bit so it might not seem too great, but while having writer's block there, I wrote the next chapter, so I'll probably load that up tomorrow. :D**

**So, once again- Reviews are loved!**


	5. Developments

**WARNING: This chapter ends with what I would consider a very high T considering the violence, I find it essential to the plot and hope it doesn't seem to unnecessary in the end.**

**Chapter 4**

**Developments**

Ianto searched for his boss for a few minutes before ending up in the entrance hall with no idea where Jack was. He pulled out his cell phone, intending to call the immortal, but the glowing screen showed that he had no reception.

"Of course," He muttered. The one drawback to the beauty of this remote area- civilization didn't extended far enough out here to call for cell service.

He looked around, now searching for a phone. He couldn't find one.

Maybe the secretary would know. He tried to remember where the woman's office was, but ended up walking over to the Headmistresses office.

He knocked lightly.

"She isn't in," Came the light Scottish accent of the secretary.

Ianto nearly jumped, but turned and smiled politely to the young woman, "Actually, I was looking for you."

"Me?" The woman asked, shaking her head so her red hair wouldn't fall into her eyes, "Oh, you need some of the forms for the faculty and students? They're in the-my office."

"Thanks, but that's not why I was looking for you, but if you have the time," Ianto said, "Miss…?"

"Williams, Amy Williams, and it's Mrs." Amy corrected, "In here," She pointed to the door next to the Headmistress's office.

The office was untidy, papers were falling off the desk and files were poking out of the cabinet and lying on the floor. Ianto nearly cringed at how messy the woman's space was kept, but stopped himself just in time. No need to appear rude.

"Sorry, I was trying to find something earlier," Amy said, "So, what was it you needed?"

"I was just going to ask if you knew where a phone was," Ianto said.

"There's one here," Amy pointed to the one on her desk.

Ianto moved to pick it up before stopping, "You're new?"

"Yeah, I am," Amy said, "Me, my husband and our friend."

"What positions are they in?" Ianto asked, mentally beating himself over the head for not remembering, he was sure he had read it. The only reason he was hesitating now was the secretary was so familiar, and in his line of work, that might not be a good thing.

"My husband's the nurse- Rory, and our friend, Jonathon, he's-"

"The new history teacher?" Ianto asked, trying to think of a way to get out of using the phone, if she was friends with the man then she could be connected and Ianto didn't want to let her know he was onto her friend. Maybe he should just call Jack anyways.

"Yeah," Amy said, sitting down at her desk, "Going to use it?" She asked, motioning towards the phone.

"Oh, yeah…" Ianto moved towards the desk once more, intending to call Jack and ask to meet him somewhere like the gardens, where it'd be hard to overhear them without being seen.

Just as he was about to pick it up, the phone rang.

"Sorry," Amy said quickly, looking at the caller ID, "I've got to take this… prospective student's mother. Shouldn't take too long, just wait a bit."

Ianto nodded, "Settling right in."

Amy smiled and answered the phone.

"Hello? No, I'm sorry, this isn't the Headmistress, she's out, this is her secretary," Amy said politely, "I can take a message or help you with anything you need."

Ianto took in the mess of papers that covered her desk as Amy rifled through a box filled with yet more forms.

"Yes ma'am, just a moment please," She said politely, "Um, no, I don't believe it's online. Ah, here, yes…it is asking for your state of residence, legal reasons and all. I'm sorry, like I said before- the Headmistress is busy at the moment, I could take a message."

She paused for a moment and Ianto got the impression that the woman had hung up.

"Or not…" Amy muttered, then looked up at Ianto with a smile, "So, you were saying?"

"You're not really a secretary, are you?" Ianto noticed, nodding towards the state of the bookshelves and the forms that the Welshman was certain were supposed to be in alphabetical order.

"What some people call messy, I call organized," Amy responded quickly, looking him straight in the eye as though trying to prove something.

Ianto smiled, not believing her, "Right. So…" He pointed towards the phone.

Amy nodded, "Go ahead, I'll just be in Miss Trails office, I need to get something from in there. Be right back."

"Kay," Ianto dialed Jack's number, hoping that his boss's phone had better reception. It always seemed to be working when Ianto's wasn't, maybe something the Doctor had done. Jack had mentioned something like that in the past.

"Jack Harkness."

"It's me," Ianto said, knowing the immortal would know right away.

"Ianto! What do you need?" Jack asked, "Find something?"

"Can we meet somewhere…outside?" Ianto asked.

"Sure, gardens good for you?" Jack asked, he sounded concerned.

"Perfect, see you in ten," Ianto said before putting the phone down.

"You get them?" Amy walked back into the room.

"Yes, thank you," Ianto said politely, "I'll see you around."

"See you," Amy said, sitting down behind the desk, pushing her hair out of her face.

Ianto froze.

_Eureka!_ He knew who she was.

"Williams isn't your maiden name right?" Ianto asked, pretending to be just a little curious.

"No, it isn't," Amy said, "Why?"

"I knew an Amelia when I was eight," Ianto said, "She was a Scottish red head like you, Amelia… Rice, I think," He purposely said the wrong name, hoping she would fill in the blank.

"Not me then," Amy said, smiling, "Pond's my last name, Amelia Pond."

"Oh, never mind then," Ianto said, walking out the door. _Amelia Pond._ That's what he had thought, but he still couldn't remember why Amelia Pond was ringing a bell.

He sighed and headed towards the exit, intent on meeting up with Jack.

* * *

><p>Jack walked towards the gardens, wondering what Ianto wanted to see him about. Maybe he had found something?<p>

He found a good spot- a small area surrounding a fountain with stone benches in a ring around it. There were no trees or large hedges in the area, Jack had guessed Ianto wanted to meet somewhere they wouldn't be overheard easily. If not… they could go somewhere else.

Not paying attention being too lost in his thoughts, Jack nearly ran into a young man.

The man was a few inches shorter than Jack with longish dark brown hair brushed over one eye. He was wearing a tweed jacket and a bowtie, Jack even thought he might have seen suspenders before the man came to a stop.

"Oh sorry," The young man jumped, to Jack's surprise, he had a English accent, he started fidgeting as soon as he saw Jack, "Didn't see you."

"It's fine," Jack said, "I wasn't watching where I was going either."

"Yes…" The man was staring at him strangely while avoiding eye contact, as though he felt guilty about something unknown to Jack.

"I'm Captain Harkness," He stuck out his hand, which the younger man reluctantly shook, "I'm here with my team investigating the death of the last Headmaster."

"Oh, yes, I heard about that," The man said, he seemed to be going through an internal battle, "Wasn't here for that… it's my second day."

"We'd still like to ask you some questions," Jack said, why not use the time he was waiting for Ianto to gain some more information.

"Oh, I've already talked with someone," The man said, "His name was Jones," At that moment he stopped fidgeting and seemed to have come to a decision, "Look, I'm sorry, but I've got to go. I'm meeting some friends for lunch, don't want to be late."

"I'm sorry to be keeping you," Jack said politely, thinking it best to keep on all the teacher's good sides, so they would be more willing to help out if need be. "Mr…?"

"Smith," The man said, turning around, having already started walking away, "Jonathon Smith."

With that he turned and walked away, towards the school.

Jack glanced around, looking for Ianto.

His phone rang loudly.

"Ianto?" He said, wondering where the man was, it had been ten minutes, and the Welshman was usually very prompt.

"Jack," Instead of the expected Welsh accent, a crisp British one came through the speakers, "It's Martha, I need to see you at the school."

"Ianto wanted to talk to me," Jack said, "I'm waiting for him."

"I'm sorry, but this is urgent," Martha said, "Get to the science wing as fast as you can." With that, she hung up.

"Yes Ma'am," Jack muttered before heading off. Stopping for a second, he turned and pulled out a piece of paper he had picked up off the floor when he had been inside the school earlier. He tore off a piece and pulled a pen out.

_Ianto-_

_Gone to meet Martha. Sorry._

_Meet me here in 1 hour._

_-Jack_

He stuck the slip of paper on top of one of the stone benches and found a small stone and stuck it on top of the note so it wouldn't blow away with the wind.

After he had left Ianto the note, Jack started walking to the school.

* * *

><p>Martha was pacing back and forth, it was a nervous habit she had picked up after a month of working for UNIT.<p>

"Martha," She looked up, Jack was walking towards her, "What is it?"

"I told you to get here as fast as possible," She accused, "That was five minutes ago."

"And I came quickly," Jack said, "It's a five minute walk."

Martha frowned, "In here," She turned to a door on their right, one of the science labs. "Ianto, he's here."

Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise, "I thought you were meeting me in the gardens." He said to Ianto who was standing at the far end of the room next to a young, dark haired woman.

"I was sir," Ianto said, "But on my way there I got a bit distracted," He pointed to his feet. A teenage boy was sprawled across the floor, his eyes wide in shock. Next to him was a pile of shards of broken glass. Looking over at the far wall, Jack saw about four windows leaning against the wall.

Sticking out of the boys chest was a jagged piece of broken glass, covered with the boys blood. His hands were red with his own blood. Looking closer, Jack saw that the large quantity of blood over the boy and the surrounding floor and glass shards, was from both his chest and deep, jagged cuts in his wrists and hands.

"What happened?" He asked, "This looks like suicide."

"That's what we thought, sir," Ianto said, "you need to see this." He stood and moved over to a computer on the teacher's desk, "The windows are for a project the oldest science class is doing, they're designing an extra classroom, they were going to design and build it. Learn to work with blueprints and materials," Ianto said, "But they share this classroom with the eleventh years, who are doing a project involving that," He pointed across the room at a huge tank that took up the whole length of the wall, it was filled to the brim with different types of flowers and plants, "They have a camera set up 24/7 to monitor this room."

He pulled up a video, marked twelve minutes earlier.

It showed a boy standing in the center of the classroom. Jack looked over at the student lying in the middle of the room, it was the same one.

_"Mr. Carents? Miss Merry? I've got my science project!"_ He moved over to one of the windows that looked out onto a small garden Jack guessed was for one of the science classes, _"I'll just leave it on the table," He said loudly._

_"Malcolm?"_ A younger boy's voice floated out of the computer's speakers, a sharp, tinny quality tone to it.

_"Kevin…"_ The older boy sighed,_ "I'll be right there. I told you, I'll go talk to those investigators soon, I was just gonna grab some lunch."_

_"Okay," _The other boy, Kevin, responded feebly, _"See you in a bit."_

_"Yeah, kay,"_ Malcolm picked up his backpack, which he apparently had thrown on the floor when he was getting his science project out. When he straightened, he froze.

_"What?"_ He sounded confused, after ten seconds, he backed up, hitting the teacher's desk, _"Stop! Stop!" _He shouted, holding up his arms to protect his face from something that wasn't there. _"No! I won't! I told you I-"_ He looked up, he paled considerably, _"Kevin? Kevin!"_ He tried to run forward but tripped, _"Stop! Stop hurting him!"_ He shouted to thin air, _"I'll do anything! I'll do-"_ He drew in a sharp breath and looked over at the windows leaning neatly in a row against the far wall, _"What? Why? No! Stop! Stop hurting-" _He choked on a sob then went over to the far wall, grabbed one of the windows.

Moving to the center of the room, he threw it down as hard as he could, the glass flying in all directions.

Malcolm knelt down and picked up the largest, most jagged shard. It cut into his hands, dripping blood onto the floor. He looked up, tears streaming down his face as he dragged the shard across his wrists, drawing even more blood. He moved the shard to his other hand, and sloppily cut into his other wrist, his hand shaking from the pain and shock.

_"Will you stop? Please,"_ He whispered shakily. The thing they couldn't see seemed to deny Malcolm this and the boy started shaking, _"Will you? If I…"_

The answer seemed to be a yes.

He took in a shaky breath and picked up the blood covered shard of glass, somehow keeping his hands steady. Moving to his knees, he drew in a deeper, calmer breath, closed his eyes, and drove the glass into his chest.

He fell to the floor with a thud, right into the position he was in currently, five feet from Jack's feet.

Jack paused the film, looking over the computer at the young woman who had now moved into the teacher's chair, staring in shock at the body.

"Ianto, get Owen and Tosh, get them over here as quick as possible, I'll call Gwen," Jack said. Ianto nodded and moved off to find the doctor and the computer technician. He looked over at Martha who looked into his eyes grimly, "Why didn't you tell me what happened?"

"I didn't want to waste the time," Martha said, "I needed you here, and besides, I know as much as you what happened here."

"You didn't tell me Ianto was here," Jack said, then frowned, "Who found the body?"

"She did," Martha nodded towards the woman, "Ianto found her, got me, said his phone wasn't working. Mine was so I called you. I was a bit in shock," She looked down at the boy, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this."

"Let's hope that's true," Jack said, "You don't want to."

She nodded, "I was about to call you, to tell you Ianto was here, but my phone lost signal. But it was fine a minute earlier in the exact same spot."

Jack frowned, "Tosh mentioned that this morning, just in passing. Something strange is going on here, stranger than we first thought," He looked at Malcolm once more, "It sounds as though he was coming to find us, to tell us something. Maybe," He looked at Martha, "It seems like whatever's causing this doesn't want us to know what's going on. I want to find out. Forcing someone to kill themselves without using physical force isn't an easy thing."

He frowned once more, "We need to figure this out. Soon."

**Alright, so I realize and apologize for this chapter being so short(compared to the previous) but it didn't fit to add anything to it...**

**PLEASE REVIEW! Gwen will be showing up again too... not that that has anything to do with reviews... but anyways! Please Review! They make me happy :).**


	6. The Next Move

**Chapter 5**

**The Next Move**

Michael walked up to the kitchens end of the cafeteria, grabbing a tray and giving a small nod and smile to the cook's cheery greeting.

"So Mikey, how's things?" She said. Mrs. Court was a good friend of Michael's foster parents, and she had taken it upon herself to watch over Michael since his new parents weren't able to. She was a small, plump, older woman, with short, curly hair that might have once been a dark brown, but now was almost completely silver. The color suited her, matching her bright blue eyes and cheery smile. She had the disposition of a sweet, but strict grandmother, which Michael loved about her.

"They're good," Michael said, holding out his tray. She handed him half a sandwich with a smile. It was what he always had- half of a veggie sandwich with rye bread- Michael wouldn't touch meat.

"Put some Mayo on it for you," Mrs. Court said, "Know how you like some on your sandwiches."

"Thanks," Michael smiled, "Mrs. Court?"

"What, sweetie?" She asked as she started wiping down the counter, Michael had been the last in line.

"Have you met the three new people?" Michael asked. He was curious about those three, and the investigators, but it would seem more normal if he was asking about the new hires. He knew for a fact that Mrs. Court didn't trust the authorities. A few years beforethe kind old lady's niece had gone missing, but the authorities had given up on their search for the young girl under the excuse that they believed the girl had ran away. Coming from a very low class family, no one outside of Mrs. Court's extended family cared at all about it, the police department in that district was known to be more corrupt than not. So, Michael stuck to asking about the new hires.

"Yeah, I have," She said, pausing, she breathed out a heavy breath, shaking her head, "They're some interesting kids, those three. Now," She leaned forward, "Don't tell anyone I said this, but… I'm not too sure about the nurse and his wife, both of them seem to… well… not really know what they're doing. If you ask me, they need to spend more time with a professional, not try and jump right into the trade."

"What about the history teacher?" Michael asked, that was the one he was most curious about.

"Ohhh… that one… well, he seems distracted but…" She shrugged, "Seems like a good guy, I'd trust him Mikey." With that, she smiled, leaned over the counter, sneaking a small candy bar onto Michael's tray with a wink, "See you at dinner. And as always," She put a finger to her lips and pointed at the candy.

Michael nodded and smiled, "Thanks."

She nodded and returned to cleaning.

He moved off into one of the unoccupied corners of the cafeteria and quickly ate his sandwich, slipping the candy into his pocket. It was half of a bar of dark chocolate, Michael's favorite. Taking care to watch the monitor- one of the older student's science teacher who seemed bored out of his mind- Michael broke a small piece off and ate it, letting it melt slowly in his mouth, savoring the sharp flavor.

After he finished, Michael cleaned up his area and, throwing his napkin out, he placed the tray in the small pile next to the door and headed out of the cafeteria, planning on going to his room to try and start on his intro Chemistry homework.

"Michael! Hey! Michael!"

Michael couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance- Kevin Merits. Hadn't he already gotten Malcolm to talk to those investigator's?

"What?" Michael said, turning around. While he did like Kevin, the twelve year old could get on his nerves.

"Seen Malcolm?" Kevin asked nervously.

"No, I thought you were gonna ask-"

"I did," Kevin cut him off.

"So why're you asking me?" Michael said, he _really_ needed to get that homework done, he didn't have time tonight, there was a Hall trip that night into Marksborough. Every month each hall in the dorms(there were four) went on an evening trip into town as a group, with a teacher and their Dorm head acting as the chaperone/leaders. It would be fun if Michael had any friends on his hall, now it was just a forced waste of precious homework time.

"I asked him, and he said he'd meet up with me after lunch, but I can't find him," Kevin said, close to tears.

"Where'd you last see him?" Michael sighed, apparently he was just going to have to risk pushing the 'lights out' rule that night. He knew he was going to have about twice as much homework in his math class(Algebra) along with finishing an English essay of his take on a short reading they had read in class- 'The Keys to Childhood'.

"Marine science room," Kevin said.

"So why don't you go check there?" Michael asked, getting even more annoyed.

"Those guys who're investigatin' are there," Kevin said.

Michael was about to mention how stupid it was that Kevin was scared of the very people he had been trying to help earlier, when he was distracted.

"Hey Mike," The voice sent shivers down his spine.

No. Not now. This couldn't be a dream. No way. He was awake, wasn't he?

Michael took a deep breath, trying as hard as he could not to shout. He didn't want to seem crazy.

"Mike? You alright?" Derik asked, moving to stand next to Kevin who didn't seem to notice the older boy standing an inch next to him. "Mike. What's wrong?"

Michael didn't speak, noticing that Kevin was staring at him as though he was going mad.

"Michael? You okay?" Kevin asked, he seemed concerned and…. Yep… scared.

"Mike, look, I'm sorry if I scared you earlier," 'Derik' said. He couldn't possibly be here, and Michael was positive this wasn't a dream.

"Hey! Boy!"

"No!" Michael couldn't help but scream, he turned around and sprinted away from an extremely confused and worried Kevin Merits.

"Michael! What's wrong!" Kevin sprinted after him.

"Come here!" The gruff voice seemed even louder than a second before.

"No! Get away from me!" Michael screamed.

"Mike, come back! Stop!" It was Derik again. Michael hesitated for a second, remembering his dream, then stopped. He turned around and saw both Kevin and Derik sprinting towards him.

"Mike," Derik stopped to catch a breath as he ran up next to Michael, Kevin arrived a few seconds later, "Don't do that, please."

"Michael… what was that about?" Kevin asked, he was breathing heavily.

"Thanks kid, I hate it when the boy runs," The voice was there again, accompanied by the nightmarish smell of alcohol and sweat. Then, the feeling of hard, calloused hands gripping his wrist.

"No," Michael stared at Derik. How could he do this?

Derik shrugged, "You really think I care?"

Michael couldn't take it anymore. He screamed. He felt as though his throat was being torn out, but still he screamed. He had to be free of this nightmare of torture and betrayal. He collapsed to the ground, not taking notice of the disappearance of the hard, vice-like grip around his arm.

"Michael!" Kevin was shouting now, he seemed to swallow his fear and moved close to Michael. The screaming boy flailed his arm out and hit Kevin hard in the face.

"Get away!" Michael wanted to curl up in a dark closet, the location known only to him. Just to hide, and be free of these nightmares from his past.

"Hey! Hey, hey…" A new voice came, deeper, accented, calming. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Michael had stopped screaming, but he refused to move from his position in the middle of the hall, curled tightly in a ball.

"I don't know," Kevin. He seemed close to tears once more, "He just started running. Then he stopped. Then… he started screaming and he hit me."

Michael glanced out from behind the shelter of his arms. Kevin had a large red mark on his cheek, giving Michael a painful shot of guilt. The other boy seemed terrified. Now that he had calmed down slightly, Michael noticed how the world seemed to shake and now had a blurry quality to it.

He was shaking and crying.

He felt a warm, gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?" The man asked.

Michael shook his head and tried to move away, but the man pushed down gently, just hard enough so Michael couldn't move far.

"I'm just trying to help," The man said, "Look, whatever you were scared of, it's gone now."

Michael shook his head, "It's never gone."

"What?" The man said in confusion.

"He's never gone…" Michael sobbed, thinking of Derik, "How's he here? How can he be here? He's dead!"

"What? Who's dead?" The man asked quickly.

"He's dead," Michael whimpered.

"Who?"

"Derik."

The man gently moved Michael's arms, showing him a young man with a larger-than-normal nose and kind eyes.

"Who's Derik?" He asked softly.

Michael just shook his head, pressing his forehead into the floor, anything to not make eye contact with the man. Now that they were he just felt silly for the way he acted when he saw the… ghosts?

"Okay… here, come on," The man helped Michael up gently, "Here, I've got a friend who'll do a good job cheering you up. I'm the nurse by the way, Rory… um… Mr. Williams," The man introduced himself.

"I'm Kevin… he's Michael," Kevin said quietly when it was obvious Michael wasn't going to respond.

"Right, um… I think they were over in the science wing," Mr. Williams said, thinking for a moment, "Marine something…"

"It's this way," Kevin said, almost in a whisper. If Michael hadn't been so shaken, he would have been surprised at how Kevin was able to talk to the stranger so well.

They walked for a couple minutes in silence, Kevin leading the way and Mr. Williams walking close to Michael. As they neared their destination, Mr. Williams spoke.

"Kevin, when we're done here, I'll get something for your cheek," He said, "Just and ice pack or something."

"Thanks," Kevin said just as they came around the corner.

Standing in the middle of the hall, biting her nails, was a young woman. She had bright red hair and was dressed in an outfit Michael was pretty sure Ms. Trails wouldn't approve of.

"Rory!" She said, "God, I've been so worried! Look something's happened."

It was then that she caught sight of Michael and Kevin.

"Rory," The red head hissed, coming towards them, "You can't bring them here," She motioned towards the two seventh graders.

"Amy," Mr. Williams said, "Something just happened, and I need to talk to the D-"

"What about?" Mr. Smith strolled up to them, he seemed worried about something. When he caught sight of Michael he smiled, "Michael and… Kevin right?" His smile slipped, "Merits?"

Kevin nodded.

"Do-"

"Rory," Mr. Smith said, "Why are they here?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about," Mr. Williams said.

"And we need to tell you something too," The red head, who Michael now guessed to be Mrs. Williams said.

"What?"

"It's about Kevin's brother," Mr. Smith said, "Although, Ms. Trails probably should be here." Mr. Smith nodded towards Kevin. Mrs. Williams seemed to get the message and with a hurried 'Be right back' she sped off somewhere back into the main section of the school.

"So… what did you want to talk to me about?" Mr. Smith turned to Mr. Williams.

"Oh, um… well, it's… well it's about these two," He motioned towards Kevin and Michael.

Mr. Smith nodded, "What about them?"

"Nothing sir," Kevin said, "We were jus' playing."

Michael had to give him credit for the lie- even though it was terrible, the other boy's voice didn't shake one bit.

"That's right sir," Michael backed him up, "We were just fooling around, but I tripped and hit my head, it hurt a lot."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Mr. Williams asked, clearly not believing them.

"We're afraid you were gonna be mad at us," Kevin said, "We're not 'posed to run in the halls. Didn't wanna get in trouble."

"Alright," Mr. Smith said, "Have you given him an icepack for that?" He pointed towards Kevin's cheek, "Don't want that to bruise up badly. Although… pack of peas might be better. I mean an ice pack's fine, but just the fact that you can use peas for something other than eating is fantastic. Although… I don't -particularly like peas-"

"Doctor," Mr. Williams said, but a second later - "John!"

"Oh, sorry," Mr. Smith said, "Rambling…"

"And no, I haven't, but I was about to," Mr. Williams said.

Michael ignored him, staring at the history teacher.

Could he really be the Doctor?

Michael's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the Headmistress. She seemed worried, and extremely saddened by something.

She paused before she spoke, "Kevin…"

"What happened to Malcolm?" The small boy asked, "They said something happened to him."

Ms. Trails took a deep breath, she seemed close to tears, "Kevin I'm so sorry…"

* * *

><p>As soon as Amy arrived with Ms. Trails, the Doctor led Rory into one of the nearby rooms, where the nurse quickly told him what had happened with the two boys.<p>

"And then, I came to find you," He finished.

"Okay… thanks," The Doctor said, his mind racing with possible causes, "And you said Michael told you he had seen someone he knew to be dead?"

"As far as I could tell, yes," Rory said, "I mean it was more… 'He can't be here… he's dead', so I guess so."

"Right… well," The Doctor sighed, "About twenty minutes ago one of the boys died."

"What!" Rory stared at him.

"They said it was suicide," The Doctor said, "But there was a camera… I'm pretty sure they watched it."

"They?"

"The investigators… Torchwood," The Doctor said, "Look, Rory, we need to be careful around them. I don't want them knowing about me… not yet at least, it's just a feeling… But still, I know they suspect me, I slipped up earlier, knew one of their name's when I shouldn't have."

"So know we've got to find whatever's causing this, while staying out of their way?" Rory asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me? Or find me?" Rory asked, "When you found out the boy was dead…"

"We just found out actually," The Doctor said, "Amy was looking for you, and we got a bit… lost. Then we came upon Torchwood by accident and they asked Amy to find Alice Trails. When they weren't looking I watched the video, it seemed as though the boy was being forced to kill himself."

"Who would want that?" Rory asked.

"I think he was on his way to talk to Torchwood," The Doctor said, "The boys here… they know something, but they're too scared to say."

Rory was about to respond, but the door opened and Alice Trails walked in.

"Excuse me," She said, her voice shaky. She sat down at one of the desks.

Rory moved over next to her.

"What's wrong?" The Doctor asked, sincerely concerned.

"It's just all this," Alice said, breathing out, "It's so hard, knowing there's a boy who'll never graduate, who'll never fall in love… Why?"

A few tears trickled down her face, "I try to get to know the boys, especially after what's been happening… and it just makes it even harder. Telling Kevin…"

"It'll be alright," The Doctor tried to comfort her, he could understand what she was going through. He'd been there once, "Those investigators, they'll figure it out, they're the best in the business."

Alice sniffed, "I know… it's just… Malcolm, he was a nice kid… why'd he have to die?"

"I don't know," The Doctor said, "Just trust me, it'll be fine in the end." He knew it was a small lie, but it always hurt him to see others like this… so… vulnerable.

She nodded, taking in a shaky breath, "I just… I guess I'm not too ready for this, running a school and these… murders. Especially of a boy."

Rory looked over at the Doctor, "Here, how about we go get a cup of tea or something, that Agent Jones seems to know what she's doing so it should be safe to leave for half an hour."

The Doctor nodded and watched Rory lead the woman out of the room. He moved to follow, but froze as he heard an achingly familiar voice. He peeked around the door frame and watched as Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper walked down the hallway,

"I think the teachers know something, but they aren't letting on," Jack murmured, Ianto nodded.

"Those three new ones, they're hiding something," Ianto said, "And I _know_ I've seen the woman's name before… just don't know where."

"Well figure it out," Jack said, moving away from the young Welshman, "We've got to stop this before more people die. Gwen, go check on Owen and Tosh, they're probably doing fine, just make sure they've got all they need. Ianto, with me."

Gwen nodded and headed off while Ianto stayed close by Jack as they disappeared around the corner at the far end of the hall.

The Doctor frowned. They were completely wrong. It had _nothing_ to do with the teachers… well he wasn't positive… but it probably didn't. Anyways- Torchwood had completely dropped the kids.

He wandered off, thinking. He needed to make sure Torchwood took up the lead involving the children once more, without drawing even more suspicion to himself. He mentally beat himself over the head at his slip-up of saying Ianto's name.

Now they would think he was involved. Then it would come to either letting them take him, and leaving the real culprit at large, or telling them who he was, which for some reason was just as worse as the former.

For what reason, the Doctor had no idea.

He walked along one of the garden paths, retracing his steps for no particular reason. Soon he was standing right where he had first come face-to-face with Jack. He sighed and sat down on the bench.

"What could possibly be doing this?" The Doctor muttered sadly. Two people already dead, one still a boy.

His eyes alighted on a small bit of paper trapped underneath a rock sitting on the edge of the bench. Black ink stood out against the bright white paper that seemed to shine in the mid-day sunlight.

The Doctor pulled the paper out from under the stone and read-

_Ianto-_

_Gone to meet Martha. Sorry._

_Meet me here in 1 hour._

_-Jack_

He didn't even need the signature to know who had written the note, he would know that handwriting anywhere.

Seeing the note gave him an idea. It was a long-shot, but it could work.

The Doctor pulled out a pen-red- from his pocket, flipped the paper over, scribbled down a short message, and stuck the new note underneath the rock. He was about to stand when he heard a familiar voice.

"Doctor."

His head shot up, "Jack?"

"Yeah… it's me," Jack walked towards him, glaring at the Time Lord, "Of course you would know that, I don't have the ability to change my face… like some people."

"How'd you kn-"

"Know it's you?" Jack finished for him, "Not hard to figure out. Found the TARDIS, sent her off to Hollywood, not the one on Earth. Sixty-seventh century, I believe."

The Doctor stared, panic gripping his heart. He didn't even spend time to notice how uncharacteristic of Jack the act was.

He was stranded.

On Earth.

In Maine.

"Why?"

"'Cause that's what happens," Jack said, spitting the words out, "That's what you did to me. How's it feel? Being abandoned by someone you thought you could trust. Well apparently you didn't trust me enough to tell me you were here."

"I just-" The Doctor started, choking a little on the words, "I just… I don't know why I didn't tell you, but I had a feeling-"

"Just like the feeling that I'm wrong and you should abandon me thousands of years in the future surrounded by corpses?" Jack shot back.

"Look, I'm sorry about that," The Doctor stood, "I just-"

"Stop." Jack growled, "I don't want any excuses. And just in case you're wondering… I'll never forgive you for that."

With that, the immortal spun on his heels and marched out of the garden, leaving the Doctor staring at his retreating back in shock.

The Doctor moved to follow him, to try and fix things, when he heard a new noise that made his blood run cold.

Make that noise_**s**_.

There was the rhythmic beat of heavy, metal shoes crunching along the gravel path, the metallic whir of a large, metal creature sliding along the grass. Thousands of other sounds that brought back terrible memories bombarded his ears.

_They can't all be here._

Hold on.

The gardens were empty.

Where would they be?

The noises stopped. The Doctor looked around in confusion. Then it dawned on him.

"Oh," He raced off.

* * *

><p>"So you just found him?" Jack asked for the twentieth time that hour, wanting to know every detail. Ianto and he were walking down to the fountain in the garden, hoping for some privacy to talk about what they had learned.<p>

"Yes, but assistant teacher found him first," Ianto said patiently.

"Okay, and you were…"

"On my way to see you, but found her and the body, so I found Martha, she was closer... and a doctor," Ianto said, "And you were there for the rest."

Jack nodded, "So what did you want to tell me?"

Ianto looked around for a moment, staying silent as one of the older students rounded a bend in the hedge maze they were walking in.

As they rounded the corner in the hedge maze, and Jack nearly ran into the history teacher.

"Mr. Smith?" He said as righted himself, Ianto helping the teacher.

The teacher stared at him, "What?"

"Mr. Smith," Jack said, "Are you alright?"

"Yes… yes, I'm good…. I'm fine," The man said, nodding, as though trying to convince himself of this as well as Jack and Ianto, "So, how're the investigations going?"

"They're going fine," Jack said, the other man was acting even more suspicious than usual.

"Oh good… good," The man nodded before skirting around Ianto and Jack, moving to leave, "Well, yes… see you 'round then."

"Well that was… odd," Jack said as the history teacher disappeared, "I think it'd be best if you kept an eye on him Ianto."

"Of course sir," Ianto said as they started walking once more, "That was actually what I was meaning to speak to you about earlier. He knew my name."

"And you…"

"Didn't tell him," Ianto said.

Jack nodded thinking, "Okay, I'll tell the others. We need to keep an eye on him and those friends of his."

Ianto nodded, "I'll do that as soon as I can sir." They reached the fountain and paused, Ianto broke the silence, "Sir, do you have any idea what might be causing this? Anything you've seen before?"

"I don't know," Jack sighed, looking over at Ianto, "I have no idea what this is. It's similar to thousands of things I've seen, but too different… I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Ianto said, trying to comfort the Captain.

"Hang on," Jack said, stopping and staring at a bench, "I thought you said you never came here."

"I didn't," Ianto said, confused.

"Then why is there writing on that paper?" Jack moved over to the bench, "I didn't write this… this is in red."

He grabbed the paper from under the rock holding it down and read.

_Jack-_

_Talk to the children._

"'Talk to the children,'" Ianto read out, "I mean, I get what it means… but why?"

Jack frowned, "Either someone's trying to help us. Or someone's trying to lead us in the wrong direction."

"So… what do we do?" Ianto asked.

Jack thought about it for a moment before looking over at Ianto, "Let's go talk to some kids."

**Right... there...**

**Okay, so sorry about the long delay, I've been super busy, just went through Hell Week for our fall play and had our class field trip and had some sports tournaments...phew... lots of stuff sooo, well I hope you liked this chapter, I'm planning on having...something... important... revealed in the next chapter...  
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**Please review! It helps me feel guilty and ignore homework and write this quicker... that might not have been the best 'Please Review' reason ever... but it's true.**


	7. Investigations

**A/N- Yay I finished another chapter! Sorry it took so long, very busy couple of weeks and guess how they ended! I got sick! So minus sleeping for days, trying to catch up on homework, and other things... I found out we had an essay due! Well now that that's over(huzzah!) and break's here(HUZZAH!) and my family's coming(*Crickets chirping*) I will try and update this this week (omg!). Okay so… tiny little confession here… this bit, might seem a bit blunt but I'm not too good with emotion, as in it's a small problem I have, I can't really get emotions too well, as in understand them. So please say something if it seems like the character should be more emotional about whatever is happening… well ya… awkward note that got too long over with… on with ze story!**

**Chapter 6**

**Investigations**

Gwen paused outside the science lab's door, taking a deep breath, she walked inside. Even though she had seen it just ten minutes before, the sight that greeted her still sent a chill of shock down her spine as she took in the body lying limp on the floor. Owen had thoughtfully closed the poor boy's eyes, but the respectful gesture did nothing to detract from the horror of the image.

It saddened her greatly whenever something like this happened, especially to a child. Her least favorite part of being a police officer was the duty of informing a person of their loved one's passing. She had always had nightmares of Andy knocking on her apartment door to inform her Rhys was gone, but since starting at Torchwood, some of those dreams turned into it being Rhys answering the door and Andy announcing _her_ death. It was common knowledge on the Torchwood team that the four mortal members would probably not live to have many gray hairs. Owen was already technically dead, only when he 'died' it happened to not be too permanent.

What would happen if she died on a Torchwood related mission? She hoped to God Jack wouldn't do what they had done in the past- shove her belongings in a locker and come up with some alibi for her and not tell Rhys. But Rhys knew about Torchwood. Maybe Jack would change the rules?

This brought up the question of- if it was Torchwood related, who would inform Rhys(in her case). Would it be Ianto? Or Tosh? Hopefully not Owen, although he _could_ act like a human being…sometimes. What about Tosh or Ianto? Gwen wasn't sure about Tosh, but she thought Ianto might have a sister in the Cardiff area. Would she be visiting this unnamed woman sometime in the future, informing her of her brother's passing?

She let out a loud sigh at her dark thoughts. Gwen had noticed this- since coming to Maine, it seemed as though her mind had a… mind… of its own. She had caught herself just an hour before wondering who would die first, Tosh, Ianto, or her. She wondered what had brought this on… this long-overdue worry over working for Torchwood.

"Gwen," Tosh's voice cut through the Welshwoman's thoughts, "Did you need something?"

"Oh, no," Gwen said, trying, and failing, to smile, "Jack just sent me here to see if you needed anything."

"Oh, we're fine," Tosh said, "I'm just waiting for this," She held up her scanner, "To come up with a precise match, and Owen's checking around the room for anything odd. The local police are coming to pick up the body."

Gwen nodded, she turned to leave, before pausing, "Have you been having trouble with your mobiles?"

Tosh nodded, "I tried fixing it, but nothing seems to work, it must just be the network."

"Right, I'm just going to look around a bit more," Gwen said, "You two need anything?"

Tosh shook her head, "We're fine, although if you see Ianto, can you tell him we might want to pull out the headsets. See if they are working."

"I'll do that," Gwen said before turning to leave the room. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, staring at it. Maybe there was something going on with the network. It could always be a possibility. She thought for a second then decided, she would take a few minutes to check out the mobile service, she didn't really have anything else to do. She'd already talked to all her faculty, and the students were all in class.

She headed off to investigate, watching the bars on her phone jump around on the screen.

* * *

><p>Michael stared blankly at the wall of his room.<p>

How could Malcolm…?

Why Malcolm? He would never commit suicide. He had always seemed the most cheerful of people to Michael. Even if that had all been a façade, Michael knew Kevin meant too much to Malcolm. Although he didn't know too much about the brothers, Michael understood that the reason they attended the school was because their parents were deemed unfit to raise them and their sister didn't have enough time to take care of two boys. Malcolm had always been protective of Kevin, even when it would cost him dearly, Malcolm went out of his way to help Kevin.

So why would he kill himself, leaving his younger brother to fend for himself in a world that had already left its mark on the boys?

Michael frowned. Maybe he hadn't killed himself, that was only what Miss Trails had told them. What if she was lying to them to stop the fact that there was a murderer in their midst spread around the school.

No. If there was a murderer, she would make sure everyone was safe, which would mean informing the student body so as to impose rules for their safety.

Maybe there was more to this than she was letting on.

Michael slid off his bed, walking decisively out of his room and heading for the science wing before he could convince himself otherwise.

As he neared the hallway, Michael took extra care to peer around the corners of the hallway to make sure no one would spot him. He heard footsteps approaching. His heart beat against his chest as though it wanted to jump out and run away just as his brain was screaming at him to. His legs wouldn't comply, so Michael stood frozen in the middle of the hall as a woman walked around the corner.

"Oh!" She jumped as she nearly ran into Michael, "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

Michael swallowed, not knowing what to do. He noted vaguely that she had the same strange accent as the man he had met early, just before lunch.

"I'm not sure you should be here," She said. She seemed nice, but you couldn't be too sure, what with a possible murderer on the loose.

"I'm looking for a friend," Michael almost let his surprise show at how steady his voice sounded.

"Well, I don't think they would be here," The woman said, "You alright? You look a bit shaky."

"Haven't been feeling too good," Michael lied.

"Oh, have you been to the nurse?" The woman seemed genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I have," Well it was a partial truth.

"Well, I hope you feel better," She smiled, but it seemed obvious that she wasn't going to move until Michael left.

He turned around and headed to the front entrance, he heard her behind him for a couple minutes, but she soon turned a corner and he was alone.

Waiting for another few minutes, Michael headed back to the science wing.

This time he made it to the marine bio room, where Malcolm had… died, committed suicide… been killed?

He paused as he caught the smell wafting from the room. It smelled like blood. He was about to walk in and check out the room for himself for any clues, when he heard voices.

"Hey, Tosh, can you replay the video?" It was a man. If Michael was correct, he had an British* accent, but Michael wasn't the best with all the accents, so he couldn't be sure.

"Right, doing it now," A woman, same, or similar accent.

"Turn the volume up will you?" The man said.

_"Mr. Carents? Miss Merry? I've got my science project!"_ Michael nearly jumped. It was Malcolm's voice, _"I'll just leave it on the table."_

_"Malcolm?"_ Kevin. Michael frowned. They must be watching the science cameras Mr. Carents had asked to be installed the week before.

_"Kevin…"_ Malcolm sighed,_ "I'll be right there. I told you, I'll go talk to those investigators soon, I was just gonna grab some lunch."_

_"Okay," _Kevin responded feebly, _"See you in a bit."_

_"Yeah, kay."_ There wasn't much noise after that, just a few rustles and footsteps. Then Malcolm spoke once more.

_"What?"_ He sounded confused, after a bit there was a thump and Michael almost jumped as Malcolm shouted, _"Stop! Stop! No! I won't! I told you I-"_ There was a pause_"Kevin? Kevin!"_

There were running steps, then a crash, he must have tripped, _"Stop! Stop hurting him!"_ He shouted,, _"I'll do anything! I'll do-"_There was the sound of Malcolm taking a sharp breath, _"What? Why? No! Stop! Stop hurting-" _He choked on a sob then Michael heard footsteps followed by the scrap of glass on wood.

Michael stopped a shout of surprise just in time as there was a loud crash from video. Apparently Malcolm had smashed the glass.

There was silence, but Michael could hear Malcolm's ragged breath, as though he was in pain.

_"Will you stop? Please,"_ He whispered shakily. _"Will you? If I…"_

Malcolm didn't speak after that, Michael didn't hear much after that anyways, he was having trouble focusing, all he understood was that Malcolm had in fact killed himself. But he had been forced too. Michael had been with Kevin before they had found out about Malcolm's death. The other boy hadn't looked injured, only frightened by the fact that he didn't know his older brother's whereabouts.

None of this made sense.

Michael felt dizzy. Why would someone be forcing people to commit suicide?

Then his stomach seemed to realize he had listened to a boy kill himself, and the smell coming from the room wasn't helping. He doubled over, about to run for a nearby classroom when, for about the millionth time that day, he nearly jumped out of his skin as a woman spoke.

"Are you alright?" The voice came from right next to his ear.

He jumped away. It was a woman, probably the one from the room… Tosh. She was watching with a concerned look on her face.

Michael didn't know what to do. All he knew was that he had been caught spying.

Maybe it was the smartest thing to do, but Michael's brain wasn't working too well at the moment…

He ran.

* * *

><p>Tosh moved to follow the boy who was sprinting away, more to see if he was okay then to stop him from escaping. He had seemed as though he was about to be sick.<p>

"Owen, I'll be b-" She stopped as a loud beeping came from her side. The scanner.

She pulled it out of her purse, checking the screen.

_**3 Possible Matches**_

She looked at the list, making a mental note to tell Jack the three species, in case he knew any specifics about the aliens, then she scrolled down.

The specifics for the three unknowns.

_**Human hybrid- Human + Unknown**_

She looked at the details. Everything about this one was basically human, except the lifespan had an 'Unknown' blinking next to it. There were a few other places, but other than that it showed up human. Tosh started to have a suspicion of what, or to be specific, who, the scanner had picked up. She would have to check with Jack.

The last two didn't have much. Just a blinking- _**Scanning**_**. **Other than that helpful comment, there wasn't much else, but one showed the general area it would be.

"Strange, I didn't know it could see where they were," Tosh muttered, ignoring Owen's confused 'What?' from behind her.

The general area was the hotel.

She pulled out her phone.

* * *

><p>The Doctor headed out of the gate, making a beeline to the town, cutting through the woods to get there as fast as he could. He had a suspicion of what was causing this, but he had to be sure. He needed to get a scan of the school, and there was only one place he could do that even if it meant exposing her to Torchwood's equipment.<p>

The TARDIS.

* * *

><p>"Right, thanks," Jack turned to Ianto, "Tosh has a lead, we're going to follow it." Returning to his mobile, he continued to Tosh, "Tosh, try to get more details on this guy, and tell Owen see if you can find a match on any of those things the scanner said, and if you see Gwen or Martha, tell them to meet us at the hotel."<p>

After Tosh's word of affirmative, Jack closed his phone, sticking it in his pocket and led the way to the van parked out front.

"So… What're we looking for?" Ianto asked.

"Anything that looks out of place. Tosh thinks she picked up on the signal for an alien ship, but it'll probably be camouflaged," Jack responded, "Some ships when they're camouflaged they use something that seems common on this planet, maybe a statue or something similar. That, or it's invisible. If that's the case look for foliage that looks disturbed or like it shouldn't be there."

Ianto nodded as the van came to a stop in the hotel parking lot.

"What about the alien?" Ianto asked.

"Let's just find the ship first," Jack said.

"But wouldn't-"

"If we find the ship it'll narrow down what species we're dealing with," Jack cut him off, "Which will be very helpful if they're violent. That way, we know how to fight them."

"So, why're we going in here?" Ianto asked as they entered the small hotel lobby.

"Find a map," Jack answered, "We might want to mark down where we've been."

"Good idea," Ianto said, "I'll find one."

"Okay, I'm going to head up to the room, Tosh asked if we could pull out the headsets, apparently the mobiles aren't working too well out here. She installed some alien software in the headsets so we'll be able to communicate easily." Jack said, ignoring the strange look their fellow patrons were giving them.

"Fine, they're in the smaller case in the closet," Ianto said, "Meet you back here in five?"

Jack grinned and headed off while Ianto turned and looked for something resembling a tourist information area. Although why a town as remote as this would have one was beyond him.

* * *

><p>Five minutes later, Ianto was sitting comfortably in one of the large armchairs in the center of the lobby, looking over the map a young woman at the front desk had kindly giving him.<p>

"Got them," Jack nearly jumped down the stairs as he came in, "Ready to head out?"

"Yup," Ianto stood, folding the map neatly and picking up the metal briefcase and following Jack out the doors.

As they headed out of the hotel, Jack took the case from Ianto as the Welshman pulled open the map once more. Ianto moved to walk back to the parking lot via the path skirting around the small cluster of trees, but Jack shook his head and walked straight into the small peninsula of trees.

"It's shorter this way."

"You know," Ianto began as he glimpsed a palm leaf mixed in with the evergreens, "This place has some strange foliage."

"Yeah, I've noticed that," Jack said, "Especially at the school."

"And over there," Ianto nodded to his right where a small group of strange looking bushes were clustered beneath a large pine tree.

Jack broke off from their path and head over to inspect the bush. It had large, thin leaves that had a purplish tinge. The berries were a light blue with red streaks. Every now and then, Jack was sure he caught a flare of vivid blue streak up the stem, but it was too fast for him to catch with certainty.

"This reminds me of something," He frowned, "Not sure where from. I'll have to think about it," He stood. He moved to go, but realized Ianto wasn't following.

"Ianto?"

"I think I found that out of place object," Ianto said, staring at something behind the large pine tree.

Jack walked over to the younger man's side, following Ianto's gaze.

He stared. He was positive his mouth was hanging open, but he didn't care.

Standing in the clearing surrounded by a circle of enormous pine trees-

A Police Telephone Box.

Or as Jack knew it-

The TARDIS.

**Soooo, minus it being a little bit short... good, bad, terrible, 'Oh my gawd this is godly!'... how 'bout you tell me in a *looks around* Ya, you in the corner! RIGHT! A...*Drumroll***

**REVIEW! Wow! Sorry, I'm a bit hyper. But still, reviews are always appreciated *nudge nudge*, even criticism, especially when it has to do with English words versus American. Once again, thanks for reading and the 20 (my gosh!) reviews and the 19(Ooh) favorites and 31(*gasp*) alerts. As we(not we, that's a general word, I don't say this... often) say from where I come from- Thanks ya'll**

***I've decided to keep this as 'British'(thank you for the tip Popcornzoe, I hope I got all of them) as where I'm from, we don't see the distinction between British and English(however obvious it is), so as I'm picturing Michael as an American kid, he probably would say British... just a note...  
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	8. Converging

**Just a little note to start with- I'm really very sorry for the long wait in between the last chapter and this one, I feel really bad about it, I made a goal to finish it last week... but failed. So without further ado-**

**Chapter 7**

**Converging**

**St. Aquinas' Gardens**

**12:34**

Michael sprinted hard, dodging around corners in the hedge maze, nearly running over four other boys in the process.

He had to get away.

Not just from the investigators, but from the image of Malcolm being killed.

He sprinted until he could barely breathe in the crisp air of Northern Maine, his feet pounding against the gravel. He flew around a corner, but as the fountain that signified the center of the gardens came into view, his foot slipped and he went flying, landing awkwardly on his back . Crawling to his feet, Michael barely took note of the scrapes and bruises he had acquired from his run through the grounds.

Sitting on the edge of the fountain, catching his breath, Michael let a few tears slide down his cheek. This was too much- Derik returning when he couldn't possibly- Him- Malcolm dying, why Malcolm?

Taking in a shaky breath, Michael looked around him, noticing for the first time exactly where he was. Running a hand through the cold water of the fountain, Michael stood.

Looking around as he decided what exactly to do, Michael spotted someone walking purposefully across the grounds, away from the school.

Mr. Smith.

The Doctor.

Michael made up his mind and, curious, followed the 'teacher' out of the school grounds.

* * *

><p><strong>St. Aquinas'<strong>

**1:02**

Gwen wandered through the halls, staring at her phone's screen, every now and then hitting a button to keep it lit up. Taking care to not run into anyone, she turned a corner and sighed once more as the bars on her mobile stayed dejectedly at zero. She had been doing this for almost twenty minutes- wandering the halls(starting at the science wing and heading towards the dorms)- but to no avail.

"Excuse me," A woman dodged around her as Gwen moved down the hall.

"Sorry," She said, looking around and stopping. She had been positive it had just been Miss Trails, but now the hallway was deserted but for a couple boys walking in her direction. There was a door to the right. Maybe she had gone in there.

Gwen turned to continue her search, but froze as she noticed her mobile.

It had a signal.

A very good signal, in fact.

She moved a little to the left.

Nothing.

She moved back to where she had just been, guessing it had just been a spike in the signal at the time, but stopped as the signal returned.

She moved to the right.

Again nothing.

Back in her original position, facing the wall, she walked forward. The signal remained strong. She walked backwards until she hit the other wall. The signal stayed strong across the hallway in one concentrated beam.

Strange.

Frowning, Gwen glanced around for anything that could be causing this, but the hallway was empty.

Curious to see if it was just her phone acting strangely, she pulled up her contacts and called the first one on the list.

_Calling Rhys_

_"Gwen!"_ Came the sound of her husband's voice. He seemed pretty happy. The quality of the call was amazing, no static or slight cutting out of the voice.

"Hey Rhys," Gwen said quickly.

"_What? Just 'Hey Rhys', no 'Hello love, I'm sorry I left the country on half an hour's notice',_"

Gwen sighed. Rhys was a bit tipsy. "Sorry love, it was for work. Look I'm sorry, but I've got to go," She knew she would get reprimanded later for the extremely short call in which nothing was said, but she really needed to find one of the others.

She took note of where she was- a long hallway that ended in a wooden door, and instead of a turn in the hall to the right, there was a glass door that lead out onto a small porch at the back of the school that overlooked the gardens. She turned to leave, but as she was heading back the way she had come, she bumped into her teammate.

"Tosh, I was just looking for you," Gwen said.

Martha, who was with Tosh and Owen, spoke up, "We were looking for _you_. Jack called, said to meet him at the hotel. We're going into town. He didn't explain. But Tosh found something."

"I'll explain on the way," Tosh said. The four headed off quickly.

"I have something to tell you… it's about the mobiles," Gwen said.

"Right, but Tosh found our alien," Owen said, interrupting, "We know who it is."

"Who?" Gwen asked, eager to catch the culprit.

"That new teacher, Mr. Smith," Tosh said, "The history teacher. This thing," She held up the scanner, "Well, I've been playing around with it and I found this," She showed Gwen the screen.

On the screen was the same hallway they were walking down at the moment. On the left of the screen, it showed Owen's back on the right, Martha's. The image had a strange quality, however. While it showed the picture clearly, it also seemed to have a layer that could be seen simultaneously with the original picture. This layer, at the moment, seemed to show body heat(Gwen figured this as Martha's image was a bright red, while Owen's showed nothing). It also seemed to show something else- around Martha, there was a slight golden glow.

"What's that?" Gwen pointed at the glow.

"Radiation Martha picked up when she was travelling with the Doctor," Tosh said, "_Alien_ radiation. I was able to figure this out, this shows all lifeforms, and it can identify which are terrestrial and which are not. For example," She tapped at the screen a few times, now it showed a table, "It shows Martha as fully human- fully terrestrial, with background radiation that's non-terrestrial in origin. It also shows remnants of things. Like," The image of the hall was up once more, "All these slight colorings to the walls and floors, it's where people have come into contact with them. So we looked around for traces like these, except extra-terrestrial, and found loads in the history classroom."

"What about his friends?" Gwen asked.

"Can't find them," Martha said, "We looked for a bit, but then Jack called. We asked around, turns out Mr. Smith left about half an hour ago, heading into town. We're going there to talk to him."

"So we have him," Gwen said, both happy and sad for the same reason. They would catch the person who had killed an innocent boy.

"Yup, we've got him," Martha said with a sad smile as they headed out of the school.

* * *

><p>Alice Trails stared at the retreating backs of the Torchwood team, her heart beating loudly against her chest. She felt as though she might not be able to breathe.<p>

_She had to find him_.

They had said he had gone into the town.

Without a second thought she ran to her office, grabbed a pen and pad of paper, scribbling out-

_Amy-_

_Gone into Marksborough, back in a bit- sorry._

_Alice_

She ran out the front doors, jumping down the front steps, not caring who saw her.

Grabbing her bicycle from where it was chained underneath her office window(who needed a car when she lived _at_ the school and the nearest town was a few minutes bike ride?), she hopped on and sped away, aiming for a little-known path through the woods that led straight to the hotel.

That's where he would be, right?

She sped down the path, her bike jumping over loose pebbles and almost slipping into the deep ditches caused by runoff on either side of the path. She steered dangerously, cutting the few corners, and not taking care to slow down as she headed down a steep hill.

She had to warn him.

* * *

><p><strong>The TARDIS<strong>

**12:49**

The Doctor slipped through the trees, ignoring the strangely colored bushes that surround the pine trees that hid his TARDIS.

He pulled the key out a pushed it into the lock, glancing behind him as he slipped inside. He had had a feeling that he had been followed all the way from the school.

Running up to the console, he pressed a few buttons while pulling the screen towards him.

"You've been scanning?" he stared at the readings, "Ever since…Oh. Thank dear," He whispered. The TARDIS had been acting even more sentient ever since it had inhabited the body of Idris a few hundred years before. It seemed as though she had noticed the strange things he had seen(shown as spikes of alien energy) and commenced a scan of the surrounding area.

"It's part _psychic_," He said aloud, not caring that he was alone, "Well that would explain how he… it knew so much about what… I knew about… him." The Doctor muttered, setting up a couple more scans.

Now that he was here, in the TARDIS, thinking back on his… vision, hallucination? He didn't understand why he had been so hesitant to let the Torchwood team know he was there. Well, if his suspicion was correct, it would explain it pretty well.

On the topic of his suspicion-

The Doctor typed furiously away at the type writer, pulling up a search through the TARDIS' databanks.

"Here we are," he said with a smile, frowning slightly when he saw the size of the file of information.

He tapped on a few keys, and soon the type writer was printing out the page.

The Doctor impatiently pulled the slip of paper out of the makeshift printer and ran out of the door.

As he shut the door, folding up the paper hastily and shoving it into one of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets, the Doctor continued his train of thought from earlier. It seemed as though whatever was causing this did not want him and Torchwood working together, hence his strange desire to keep his identity a secret. This brought up the problem that if whatever was causing this could control his thought patterns, it would have to be very, very strong.

Looking at the pluses, however, it seemed the radius of whatever was causing this was relatively small. If he managed to stay outside of it while the Torchwood team was outside also, they might be able to figure something out together.

With that in mind, the Doctor set out to find some way to communicate with the Cardiff team, after he had explained just who he was.

* * *

><p>Jack walked as fast as he could without breaking into a run. He wasn't sure where he was going, he just needed to get his thoughts in order.<p>

The TARDIS was here.

In Maine.

Which would mean the Doctor was here.

In Maine.

Maybe.

Jack _had_ noticed the difference. They were the reason he wasn't trying to burst through the doors this very second, but coming close to running in the opposite direction.

For starters, it was too blue. The blue was just a shade brighter and more vibrant than he remembered. Second- there was a small circular crest on one of the doors that hadn't been there before.

Jack wasn't sure what it meant, maybe it _wasn't_ the Doctor. Maybe it was.

Maybe he had regenerated.

Jack wasn't sure which was worse. It not being the Doctor, or having to (once again) get used to a completely new man.

"Jack!" Ianto was shouting, trying to keep up, jogging every now and then to stay with the immortal, "What's going on? Is that the ship?"

"It's the ship," Jack said. They were now at the parking, but he didn't care. Why would the Doctor not tell them… unless he had just arrived. Maybe that's what Toshiko had picked up on her scanner.

No, it was a more steady signal, so it wouldn't have been the landing she picked up.

What should they do?

He had called her seconds after he had seen the TARDIS, not explaining just telling her to get the others and Martha and come to Marksborough before hanging up and running away from the clearing, but other than that he had no idea.

Jack frowned, stopping suddenly and almost causing Ianto to smash into his back. He shoved his hands into his pockets and was about to say something when his right hand clenched something hard, metallic and surprisingly warm.

He pulled it out. It was a normal key to a normal, everyday Yale Lock. Except this one was glowing a light gold and warmed his hand considerably because of the heat radiating from the metal due to its proximity to the time machine.

Staring at the glowing key that he always had with him, Jack made up his mind.

He spun around, ignoring Ianto's questions, and headed back the way they had come.

He would figure this out, the school, the strange teachers, the plants… But first, he would figure this new twist out. If it _was_ the Doctor, whether the one he remembered or a completely new regeneration, then the more the merrier. He would be able to help Torchwood stop this… after they had figured out what… this… was in the first place. If it wasn't, then… well, they would improvise. It was Torchwood's specialty, after all.

He was almost back into the forest when he heard someone shouting his name.

"Jack!" It was a man.

Jack turned around, looking around the parking lot. Soon he saw the young history teacher coming towards them at a brisk jog.

"I was looking for you!" He said as he met up with them halfway across the parking lot, "Well, I actually only decided to look for you a second before I actually saw you… but I should have been looking for you for hours. Which would not have been the case as I would have probably seen you minutes later."

"What are you talking about?" Jack looked at the man with mistrust.

"Oh yes, sorry about that," The man said, pausing as he caught sight of the key in Jack's hand. The grin slipped off his face, "Oh." He started backing away, "I was positive it didn't extended this far."

"What extended this far?" Ianto asked. If Jack hadn't been so focused on the fact that the TARDIS was mere meters away from them, he would have felt bad for Ianto. Nothing would be making sense to the Welshman at the moment. To tell the truth, most of it didn't make any sense to the immortal anyways.

"The projection field… but you'd know all about that, wouldn't you," The man seemed nervous.

"What do you mean, projection field?" Jack cut in, "Listen, Mr. Smith-"

"Mr. Smith?" Mr. Smith froze, "Not… You think I'm Mr. Smith?"

"Think?" Ianto frowned, "What do you mean, think? It isn't your real name?"

"No, no, of course it isn't," Then the man froze, glancing over his shoulder. He leaned forward and whispered. "It'd be best if you come with me. I think I've been followed."

"So, if you aren't Mr. Smith… then who are you?" Jack asked, having no intentions of following this strange man.

"I can't explain that right now, but if we go somewhere more… private, I can explain," he said, eyeing the key once more, "Maybe over there," He nodded over to the woods where the TARDIS was hidden.

Jack frowned. It was probably just a coincidence.

"Fine, I have a good place," He wanted to know what this man had to say, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn't run for it.

It was worth the risk. Besides, both he and Ianto had a couple Retcon pills in their pockets. Just in case.

"Right. Lead on," Mr. Smith said, looking over his shoulder.

"Come on then," Jack lead the way, followed by Mr. Smith with Ianto bringing up the rear.

Soon the TARDIS came into sight. Jack walked up to it, intending to use the key, but as reached out, Mr. Smith moved in front of him.

"Let me," He glanced at Jack. Pulling out a key, he fit it into the lock, turned it, and pushed the door open.

Jack paused a moment, before following 'Mr. Smith' into the larger on the inside time machine, having realized who he was following.

"Is he our alien?" Ianto asked.

"The one we were picking up, yeah," Jack said quietly, still staring. No wonder 'Mr. Smith' had been acting strangely around them. But this brought up the question- Why didn't he just tell them who he was. Unless there was someone else at the school who would know him… Jack frowned, then decided to tell the young Welshman what he had figured out, "But not the one who's behind it… Ianto. Welcome to the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?" Ianto stopped in his tracks and said, "As in… _the Doctor's_ TARDIS?"

Jack nodded.

"So, does that mean he's…" He motioned towards the Doctor.

"Yeah," Jack said, walking forward once more.

Ianto followed, walking in right behind Jack, "Oookay."

"Alright?" 'Mr. Smith', better known as The Doctor, asked, spinning on the spot where he was standing next to the console..

"Um yeah," Ianto said, frowning, "It just seems as though your box is a little bit bigger on the inside."

"A little?" Jack laughed, watching the Doctor, "You should see the swimming pool."

Ianto raised his eyebrow as Jack turned to the Doctor.

"So, Doctor," Jack said, "Long time, no see."

"Jack," The Doctor said seriously, getting straight to the point, "We've got a problem."

**Right- so- They met *hopeful smile* the real meeting's next chapter... but still... So! Please review! They make me happy, especially this time of year- no Christmas doesn't make me depressed and stressed- the other thing... that's right! Mid-terms! Already taken one*grumbling* so that's one down, four to go, then FREEEEDOOOOOM! fortwoweeks. But anyways, once again, I'm really really really sorry about the long wait, no excuses, I'm just a procastinator with no time, so please review.**


	9. Some Possible Answers

**First off- sorry about the long wait-**

**Second- I hope I did the 'Jack meets up with the Doctor' bit justice**

**Third- I hope you enjoy this chapter**

**(And fourth- I just rewatched COE... well... I watched the first three episodes but as soon as Ianto and Jack were getting ready to go... Well I went back and watched a random episode which turned out to be They Keep Killing Suzie... needless to say I was tired the next day, but not overly sad because of _that scene_(sorry, I'm still in denial)- but still, :) Ianto! and Tosh and Owen... but still- my new rule- Torchwood= season 1&2 only)  
><strong>

**Chapter 8**

**Some Possible Answers**

_"So, Doctor," Jack said, "Long time, no see."_

_"Jack," The Doctor said seriously, getting straight to the point, "We've got a problem."_

"And what problem would this be?" Jack asked, crossing his arms, putting the fact that the Doctor had been hiding from them behind him for a moment. "I mean, a guy running around killing kids and giving everyone nightmares, we get that every day…"

"It's more what's causing it," The Doctor frowned at the sarcasm, "I'm actually not too sure," he said, "I think I've figured out what might be causing this… but it's slightly impossible."

"As things normally are with you," Jack pointed out.

The Doctor glared before continuing as though there had been no interruption, "It's just the thing that could be causing this is found in a galaxy thousands of lightyears away from here, there were only about twelve, and the race that used them went extinct seventy thousand years ago when a solar flare knocked out their whole communication system and they accidentally blew up their own planet because of it."

"What planet?" Jack asked.

"Relai," The Doctor answered immediately, but almost in a whisper.

"Relai?" Jack stared, "As in, you think this could be a Relaiin torture device?"

"So you've heard of it," The Doctor said.

"That's about all they invented, other than their communication network connected to one main computer, and we all know how well that went," Jack said.

"I'm sorry," Ianto cut in, slightly irritated at the way they were talking, without taking into account not everyone in the room had travelled in space, let alone time, "There are some people who have not been beyond this planet's atmosphere, as strange as that may sound. What's a Relaiin torture device?"

"It's a device, slightly psychic that shows a person their greatest fear," The Doctor said, brushing past Ianto's angry sarcasm, "I went to a hotel like that… Except, this is different… the hotel... well you died. But this, it shows you your fear, but just enough so you _want_ to die, but you can't. It won't let you. Ultimate torture."

"But people _have_ died," Ianto pointed out.

"Yes, but the thing about the device is that it keeps alive only the subject of the torture," The Doctor said, "Actually, if it's being threatened, as in someone is trying to get it _un_connected with the subject, it'll do whatever it takes to stop said person."

"But it's only one subject," Jack said, "This is everyone in the school… even us. Ianto saw something."

Ianto stiffened, he hadn't told anyone about that. How did Jack know.

"Ianto… I know you well enough to realize when something's spooked you," Jack gently answered his unspoken question.

The Doctor frowned, then sighed, "I don't know. That's why I think it's improbable, both because of the likelihood of one of them actually being here, and the fact that more than one person has had visions, namely myself and one of my friends."

"Well… can she do a scan?" Jack asked, thinking of the possibilities, as he pointed to the console.

"Probably," The Doctor said, "But only for Relaiin technology… the TARDIS tried earlier for any sort of alien technology, but the school seemed to be covered with thousands of different varieties, she couldn't get a fix good enough to tell me specifics. If I ask her one specific type, she might be able to tell me if it's there. It'll take a while though," He spouted out as he spun around the console, pulling levers, pushing buttons, and (to Ianto's great surprise,) typing away on a typewriter jammed into the console.

In the silence cause by the Doctor working hard, Jack walked up to the console to join him, leaving Ianto, glancing around the large room, by the door.

"So," Jack said, now they had come to a decision, "You've redecorated."

"Yeah," The Doctor peered around the Time Rotor grinning, "You like it?"

Jack shrugged, "I liked certain aspects with the old version. Same with this one. So." He leaned against the console as the Doctor continued working. With a frown, he decided to get straight to the point, "Why the secrecy?"

"I think it has something to do with what's causing this," The Doctor said, as though he had a readily prepared speech in front of him, "The Relaiin device(if that _is_ what's causing this) would go to any lengths to keep its subject alive, and to stay in this bond with the subject. It's even slightly psychic, it'd be able to tell if the subject was trying anything to break out of the bond. So if someone outside the bond tried to break the bond with the subject's knowledge, the device would use any means necessary. In our case, I believe the device took knowledge from those outside the specific bond(which it shouldn't be able to, which makes this just an improbable theory), specifically about me… and Torchwood, and used it against us.

"It would probably see that from past experiences, we work best together, so if it kept us apart, we wouldn't get as far," The Doctor spoke at a lightning fast speed before pausing so suddenly Jack thought something might have happened to him, making the immortal glance over at him. Then, the Time Lord continued, "So, to make this work, if it really is a Relaiin device, we have to keep it a secret from the subject."

"But everyone's showing signs of being what you'd consider a subject," Ianto put in from where he was standing awkwardly by the door, frowning slightly. "How'll we know who it is?"

"If there is one," Jack pointed out.

"True, but the one who's been showing signs the longest would be the best guess, or the one with the strongest…visions…" The Doctor said.

"So all we have to do is go ask every single person in the school if they've been seeing dead people, and if so how often," Ianto nodded, "Simple. After we're kicked out, we'll be able to keep our plan a secret without a problem."

Jack sighed, "It won't be that hard," he said, "They'll be more jumpy than most-"

"Michael Coles," the Doctor said.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Michael Coles, he's a seventh grader at the school," The Time Lord said, absent mindedly, as he stared at a wall, "He…" The Doctor frowned, "Well, I have reasons to believe he has more of a chance of coming into contact with this sort of device than the rest of the school."

"And why would that be?" Ianto asked.

The Doctor frowned, "Botany," he spun around and got to work once more at programming the scan, leaving Ianto to raise an eyebrow in question to Jack, who returned it with a shrug.

After a moment of silence, Jack spoke, "So, just a question," he asked, leaning against the console as the Doctor looked up, curious, "Are you purposely getting younger with every regeneration? Or is that just a normal Time Lord thing?"

"It just happened that way," The Doctor protested.

"Not saying it was a bad thing," Jack responded as Ianto walked up to them.

"Um, sorry to interrupt," Ianto said, looking as though he was in fact very pleased to, "But shouldn't we be trying to actually _find_ said alien artifact? Not sitting around trading stories?"

"Right!" The Doctor said, spinning around to his console, "So, this scan will take around about an hour. Oh! Idea!" He spun back to Jack, "You go get your friends, meet me and _my_ friends at the coffee shop in town. Won't be hard to find, can't miss it, it's the only one." The Doctor ran to the door before spinning around to face the other two men, "And just a little warning- for now, I'd stay away from the school. I would _call_ your friends."

"I already have," Jack said, "I can call them again. Owen, Gwen, Tosh and Martha can meet us there"

"Brilliant," The Time Lord said, "Right, well, see you in half an hour!" He was halfway across the clearing before he froze and spun around once more, "Hold on… did you say… Martha? As in…?"

"Martha Jones, yeah," Jack said with a small smile, "She seemed to think you wouldn't be coming."

"Well, I can't miss out on all the fun, now can I?" The Doctor said, something similar to both happiness and sorrow shining through his ancient eyes. As soon as Jack spotted it, however, it disappeared and the Doctor was his, now normal, overly-energetic self. "Yes well! As I was saying! Half an hour. Don't be late," He pointed at Jack before walking quickly into the surrounding trees.

Jack smiled before moving to leave as Ianto said, "So Sir, I guess I should call Martha then."

"Thanks Ianto," Jack said, "Let's go get the van."

* * *

><p>Gwen, Martha, Tosh and Owen were in the process of making their way through the crowd of boys blocking the entrance to the building when Martha's mobile rang.<p>

Pausing as Martha answered the call, the other three waited patiently as Martha spoke quickly with the person on the other end.

As she hung up, Martha looked at her companions, "That was Ianto. He said to meet us at the coffee shop in town. There's only one."

"Did you tell him we found the alien?" Tosh asked, "He and Ianto went into town, they think they found a spaceship near the hotel."

"No, he hung up too quickly," Martha said, "But that's not bad, I think 'Mr. Smith's' in town, so we can meet them on the way to find our culprit."

"Ianto probably got our comms out of his room, but we still want to have our phones with us at all times, no matter how bad the signal," Tosh said, moving back to her project of attempting to coax her scanner into some sort of a tracker, but having no luck. The others started walking towards the entrance, making sure the computer technician was still with them as they exited the building.

"We'll try to find Mr. Smith or one of his friends, and if we find ourselves near the coffee shop, then we pick up Jack or Ianto on the way, all the better, but we need to find Mr. Smith. That's our top priority- stop him before he does anything else to hurt the people here," Martha said firmly, her UNIT officer's training shining through in her stance and comfort with the orders.

"I'll try and figure out his species, but after we've caught him," Owen said to Gwen, "So we might now what sort of tech he's using, in case it doesn't stop when we catch him. Then we might be able to stop it."

Gwen nodded, listening closely to her friends and colleagues, but discretely searching her pockets with a growing panic.

_Where was her phone?_

Normally she wouldn't panic over something as mundane as losing her mobile, but at the moment, with a murderous alien on rampage in an unfamiliar town in which she barely knew anyone with the stakes growing higher by the second, Gwen froze. "I've lost my phone."

Tosh looked back at her, "We need it to find that anomaly you told us about, and in case our comms don't work, or it only works with that specific mobile" She said, mainly to Martha and Owen, the former immediately barked out a command.

"Gwen, go back, see if you can find your phone, but _don't take too long. _ If you can't find it in five minutes, come back here. We need to head out now, so just meet us in the town. As soon as you find your phone, call us. If you don't, find a landline and call us." Martha said, leading the other two out the front doors as Gwen spun around and raced back into the building, still searching her pockets, while scanning the ground frantically.

A few minutes into her frantic search, Gwen shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, panicking slightly.

Her hand wrapped around the cool plastic of the cheap mobile she and the others had bought for their short stay in America, but with which she had taken the time and care to add in such contacts as her fellow Torchwood members, but also a few close friends or family members like Andy and Rhys, followed by her mother and father. Just in case. You never really knew with this job. What could be found in some small unheard of town in the States could very possibly effect(harm) someone as far away as Wales. You really never knew.

Just as she didn't quite know how she had missed her phone in her first frantic search of her pockets.

She frowned, making a show, for no one in particular as she was alone, of flipping open the mobile and typing in Tosh's temporary number.

There was the dreaded beep and small message notifying her that there was no signal.

A jolt of panic shot through her. Taking a deep breath, she tried frantically to calm herself, but to no avail, for some strange reason, which helped even less.

She slipped the phone back into her pocket, where she had failed to locate it earlier, and glanced around.

She froze.

She stared.

"Rhys?" She said, her mouth hanging open as she took in the sight of her husband standing in the middle of the hallway, a look of pure fury on his normally calm features, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," He said, walking towards her.

"It's… for work," Gwen said, trying to remember the last time she had spoken to Rhys. About five hours. He had been in Wales, and the flight from London to Washington DC was around 8 hours. This made no sense.

"Yeah right. More like, for Jack," Rhys spat, not stopping. Gwen backed up slowly, frightened, for the first time in her life, by her husband. "You're always of with him. 'Saving the world'.'Rescuing the lost'."

"Rhys." Gwen said, nearly tripping as she hit the wall at the turn the hall. Reaching out, she felt the corner, and followed the wall, not taking her eyes of her furious husband, "I don't know what you-"

She had said the wrong thing.

Rhys cut her off with a furious wave of his arm, as though trying to hit her, "I don't care! I know! You think you love him! Not me! So why'd you settle with me then? It safe? What about kids? No! We're never gonna have them! Torchwood's too dangerous! It's always Torchwood and Jack!" Rhys was screaming now.

Gwen, having frozen, tried to keep the tears at bay as the thought sluggishly moved across her mind wondering wouldn't someone have heard?

"Rhys, I-" Gwen sobbed as Rhys moved forward, "I-"

"You know what?" Rhys said quietly, but so thickly coated in venom Gwen's head shot up to stare at him. There was a cold fury burning in his normally smiling eyes, "I don't care. I don't care one bit about you, Gwen _Cooper._ I don't care one _fucking_ bit." He ended with a sharp whisper, before stomping past her.

She stared blankly at the wall across from her as the footsteps faded. It took a few moments for her to realize she was shaking fiercely.

She took a deep breath, tears streaming down her pale, freckled cheeks, before spinning around and, not thinking straight, sprinted after Rhys.

* * *

><p>"That's him," Martha said, pointing through the coffee window to where the culprit was sitting, talking to someone hidden by a bend in the wall. "I met him a couple days ago, it was his first day here. His interview, actually. Hired immediately."<p>

Tosh nodded, "Makes sense. He's able to kill without anyone even seeing. It doesn't go against anything to say he might be able to control how people think. It would actually make even more sense."

"How about we go in, and grab him," Owen said, "That person he's with-"

"Might be in danger," Martha nodded, moving her jacket aside to give her easier access to the gun concealed at her waist. As much as she hated the idea of having to use the offending object, it might be the only option in the next few moments. "Let's go."

She walked across the street, glancing around- slightly nervously- as she made sure Tosh and Owen were with her. When they had reached the town, they had immediately decided to locate their target before waiting for Gwen to catch up to them. The time wasted in waiting might give 'Mr. Smith' the opportunity to kill once more.

"Right," Martha paused outside the door leading to the coffee shop, "Be careful, you never know what he could do."

Owen nodded, "We need to get him to come with us, but we need to get him away from the town so he won't be able to get to anyone. Then we can call Ianto or Jack and they can bring the stuff to keep him locked up until UNIT can come."

Martha took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

* * *

><p>Gwen rounded another corner, just catching sight of Rhys walking through a door at the end of the hallway. The hallway with the mobile signal anomaly, she noted.<p>

She jogged the last few meters, pausing before pushing the door open.

She was greeted by darkness.

No Rhys, nothing. Just a blank, staring door way shrouded by darkness.

Gwen looked behind her, feeling as though someone was watching her.

"Rhys?" She gasped in surprised at her husband standing right behind her, "How'd you-"

She didn't even finish her sentence as Rhys moved quickly towards her, raising his arm as though to strike.

Gwen stumbled backwards, her heel connecting hard with the divider at the bottom of the doorframe. She landed heavily on her back, looking up just in time to see her friend, lover, and husband slam the door shut. Leaving her in darkness so thick it threatened to choke her.

**Alright, so that's just a mediocre chapter after such a long wait... I'm sorry. I'm having a huge amount of trouble writing the Torchwood meets the Doctor bit- I have about 7 different versions at the moment, so I'm procrastinating slightly and pushing that to the next chapter- I promise-**

**Please Review! I will do my very very very best to get the next chapter up before next week(which is when I start my one month time of having no life due to theatre, music, two research papers, and two competitions... fun right?)  
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	10. Into the Dark

**Chapter 9**

**Into the Dark**

Michael sat in the parking lot of the town's singular hotel.

His legs hurt.

His back hurt.

His neck hurt.

He was cold.

He was scared.

Michael moved slightly, hoping the different position would help relieve the pain from the side of the car digging into his shoulder blade.

The movement just caused the large, jagged piece of gravel under his left knee to dig into his skin even deeper. He didn't dare lift his legs to grab it, in case the resulting movement scrapped the gravel around.

_They might be here_.

But the stone was in the process of singlehandedly cutting through all parts of his knee. A very slow and painful process, Michael found.

Just as he made up his mind to risk it, Michael heard movement behind him.

Lowering himself slowly, so his stomach was resting flat against the gravel, Michael looked across the parking lot through the space between the underside of the car and the parking lot's surface.

Two pairs of shoes came into view from the direction of the trees that bordered the car park- one pair well kept, fancy dress shoes, but a type that seemed good for running. The other pair was boots, light gold, well worn, almost hidden by a long, dark blue cloak which obscured the rest of the owner.

Michael remembered that cloak.

The investigators.

The two pairs of shoes approached, the crackle of gravel giving Michael enough cover to slide, as carefully as possible, underneath the car he was hiding next to.

"-right, see you," It was the foreign man Michael had helped earlier, the one in the suit. It was the owner of the fancy shoes.

"They coming?" It was an American accent, the owner of the coat and the boots.

"Yeah, they'll be there in twenty minutes," The foreigner said, before pausing, the shoes turning around to face Michael's car, "Hold on."

Michael froze, holding his breath. They couldn't have seen him? Could they?

"Forgot something in the rooms," The man said, "Owen asked me to grab something out of his secondary kit."

"Did you tell them?" The American asked as the boots followed the shoes.

"What?"

"About what we found."

"Oh," There was a pause, "No. If this thing's psychic, couldn't it easily overhear a phone call. I'll call them in fifteen minutes, when they're out of range."

"Good thinking." Was the last thing Michael was able to hear from the American as the men made their way across the parking lot to the hotel.

Michael frowned. He had last seen the two men follow Mr. Smith(better known as the Doctor) away from the parking lot. Now they had returned, so where was the Doctor?

After a few minutes of waiting, Michael was about to give up as he came to the conclusion- lying on your stomach on cold gravel isn't the best way to spend an afternoon.

There were more footsteps.

Michael held his breath as they approached, stopping just feet to his left.

"Michael Coles."

Michael started as the young face of an ancient man came into view as said man knelt down to look beneath the car that was Michael's hiding place. He scrambled out from underneath the car, slamming into the van it was parked next as he stood, and stared at the man standing on the other side of the car, whose shadow he had just vacated.

"You know, I would be annoyed that you've been following me," The man said, "But I was about to go looking for you, so it saves me the trouble."

"What?" Michael choked, his mouth had gone dry. Now that he knew…

"Look, Michael, we both know you've been lying," The Doctor said.

"About what?" Michael asked.

"About a lot of things," The alien said.

"I'm not the only one," Michael stated, too scared to think straight.

The Doctor stared at him, the surprise evident in his expression as he stayed silent.

"What do you mean?" He asked quietly.

"We both know," Michael repeated the man's words, before adding, "Doctor."

The Doctor blinked, "Ah. Well. I shouldn't be surprised, now should I?"

Michael kept eye contact, more scared than he had ever been in his life. He'd heard stories about the man standing in front of him- you would, when your mom was a famous archaeologist. Although, it was hard to tell the exaggerated stories from the truth… He was trying so hard to stop shaking, he didn't notice the Time Lord cross his arms and relax slightly.

"You know something, don't you," The Doctor said, "You know about the visions, don't you. You know who's been killing these people."

"I-" Michael stopped. He was both surprised and terrified. He knew about the Doctor. The man would know. He had seen the drawings. But then, that wasn't what the man had said.

The Doctor frowned at Michael, standing frozen in place at the accusation.

"You seem a bit cold, how long have you been out here? An hour?" He asked Michael, startling the boy in the sudden change in his demeanor, before continuing "Well then, how about a cup of tea?"

* * *

><p>The Doctor walked up to the woman behind the counter.<p>

"Hello," He said with a smile, "Would it be possible for me to borrow your phone for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure," The friendly girl said, "Here," She pulled out her phone, at his surprise she added, "Our landline's been having trouble, so you can borrow my cell."

"Right. Thanks," He said before dialing Rory's number quickly.

_Hello?_ The nurse;s voice came floating through the speaker.

"Rory!" The Doctor said happily, "You're okay!"

_Yes, I am. Is there any reason I wouldn't be?_

"No. No!" The Doctor said quickly, "Look, is Amy with you?"

_What? Has something happened to her? Look. If you got her hurt-_

"Rory. Nothing's happened," He cut Rory off shortly, "I just need to know. I need the both of you to meet me at the town's singular coffee shop in less than half an hour."

_Right. I'll call her._

Rory hung up.

The Doctor handed the server's mobile back to her with another thank you, this time accompanied with an order of a small cup of tea for himself and a hot chocolate for Michael.

As the beverages were handed to him, he realized one flaw in his little plan, "Oh, I just realized. I don't have any-"

"You can pay us back," The girl said, "You're the new guy at the school right? Yeah, we get teachers in here all the time, forgetting to bring money. I'll just write it down as an IOU."

"Right, thank you, sorry," He said, taking the drinks over to the booth Michael had picked out. The boy had relaxed slightly after he realized the Doctor wasn't going to do anything to him.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their respective drinks.

"So." The Doctor broke the silence, deciding to approach this from a different direction than earlier "Michael. Care to explain why you were drawing Caereisthian flowers, native only to the seventh moon of Meril?"

Michael frowned, "I like the way they look."

"It was more of a question of _how_ you were drawing them," The Time Lord said.

"With some pencils and paper," The boy said. While it seemed to be a sarcastic comment, The Doctor could tell it was more of an excuse than a retort.

"More the _knowledge_ portion, not the equipment," The Doctor said stubbornly.

Michael looked down at his mug, "I'm not from here."

Frowning, the Time Lord said, "I guessed as much. So. Michael. Where exactly are you from?"

There was a pause, but as Michael seemed just about to speak, the door to the shop swung open.

* * *

><p>"Hello?" Gwen asked the darkness tentatively, brushing her hands lightly along the floor and the wall behind her to try and get her bearings. She tried not to think about how she had come to be here in the first place- it would just make getting out of here that much harder. But still, the look on Rhys' face…And the way he had told her he didn't care… He did…didn't he?<p>

Gwen shook her head with a frown.

"Hey," Came the dull, slightly hoarse response from across the room, causing Gwen to flinch slightly in surprise. It was a young boy's voice,, with the quality of being in the midst of puberty- not too deep, but deeper than a child's.

"Are you alright?" Gwen asked, her police background taking charge with her Torchwood-born mistrust of the unknown pushed to the back. A hurt minor was the first priority.

"I'm okay… just…scared," The boy admitted. There was the rough sound of cloth and shoes being rubbed against rough wood.

"It's going to be okay," Gwen lied, both to herself and to the boy, "I'm Gwen, by the way, I'm with Torchwood, the team that's here to help out."

"You can't help," The boy sad in a dead voice, "There's no way to stop it."

"There is, there always is," Gwen said, "And my friends will figure it out. Now," She stood unsteadily, using the invisible wall behind her for support, "We're still in the building, but this must be in an unused room. But it's a house… there's got to be a light somewhere," She said, waving her other hand along the wall, "Aha! A door," She said more triumphantly than she felt. There was no door knob.

She moved slowly to the left, feeling out the shape of the door, hoping to find some sort of light-switch. Just as she was about to give up and move on, the sound of fabric rubbing against wood came to her ears. She paused as she listened to the uneven steps and the common pauses as the boy made his way over to her.

"The light's on the left side," He said, "All the rooms're like that."

Gwen ran her hand on the left-hand side of the door, soon finding the switch.

Nothing.

"Right, maybe the bulb's out," She said.

"Or maybe there's no power," The boy said dejectedly and Gwen heard fabric against wood once more followed by a dull thump as the boy slid to the ground, giving up from his moment of hope, "Guess we're stuck in the dark now."

"Well, it's not too bad," Gwen said, "Just no light. So, what's your name?"

"Michael," The boy said.

"Well then Michael," Gwen said, pausing for a moment before deciding on the best way to distract the boy, "Where're you from?"

"Florida," Michael said, "No one else here is…"

"I know how that feels," Gwen said, "Have any siblings?"

"No… don't have any parents neither," Michael said.

"I'm sorry," Gwen said sincerely, surprised at the venom in the boy's voice as he spoke.

"Don't be, my dad was the worst, and my mom couldn't take care of herself, let alone a kid," He said, "I lived with her sister my whole life, until she died so I was sent to a foster home. They didn't have time to take care of me, so they sent me here."

"I'm sorry," Gwen said.

"Doubt it," Michael said harshly, Gwen could hear the frown behind the words.

"No really… I a-"

"Don't want to hear it, okay?" Michael scooted away from her, "Can we just die in peace please?"

"We aren't going to die," Gwen said forcefully as Michael snorted.

"We're in a pitch-black room, no one knows we're here, I've been here two hours already, no chance we're gonna leave," Michael said.

Gwen sat slowly and quietly next to the boy, thinking of what to do next.

* * *

><p>Martha paused in the doorway before walking up to the empty counter, it seemed the person who was supposed to be manning the shop was taking a quick break. It seemed they were very trustful in a town as small as Marksborough.<p>

She had to make sure the person 'Mr. Smith' was with wouldn't get hurt when they came in to arrest/capture him.

Glancing over at the table she saw the man- mid-twenties with a strange choice of clothing- sitting with a boy- small, pale, with green eyes and light brown hair. The boy wasn't looking at the man, he seemed to be uncomfortable with the situation.

"Hello?" Tosh said, startling both Martha and Owen. Glancing over her shoulder, Martha saw Tosh on her mobile, "Oh, okay. Well, we're already here… Yes, she's here…Oh, right, I'll tell her… Oh, and Ianto- okay, we'll check… can you two just meet us here?... Okay, goodbye Ianto."

She put the mobile in her purse and quietly spoke to Martha, while the UNIT doctor kept an eye on their target over the computer technician's shoulder, "That was Ianto. He and Jack found something, they want to meet us here, so they'll be coming in a few minutes."

"What did they find?" Martha asked.

"I'm not sure," Tosh said, "Ianto said he didn't want to say, in case someone's listening in. But then he told me, since we were in the coffee shop, and not at the school- his words, I don't know," Tosh said to Owen's look of confusion, "That we need to find one of the students- a Michael Cole. Says he might have something to do with this."

"Right, well," Martha stepped forward, "We need to get this over with," She walked purposefully over to the booth that contained the alien threat and the young boy. "Mr. Smith?"

The man looked up, then grinned, "Martha!"

"Look, Mr. Smith, you'll have to come with us," Martha said, ignoring the fact the man knew her name- he might have heard it somewhere, or even picked it up telepathically.

"May I ask why?" He said with a frown at the use of the name 'Smith'.

"We need you to come with us," Owen said, "But first, get out of the booth and away from the kid."

"Why?" The boy asked.

"Oh, now I understand, you think…" Mr. Smith said with a sigh, before looking up at the worried thirteen year old, "Don't worry Michael, it'll all be fine."

"Michael?" Tosh said, "Michael Coles?"

The boy nodded in surprise.

"Look, Mr. Smith," Owen said, interrupting, "Get up, hands raised, and step away from the booth," he said firmly, his hand resting on his gun threateningly.

"Alright, alright," 'Smith' stood.

"What're you gonna do with him?" The boy asked.

"Hey!" A girl walked out from behind the counter, the door labeled 'Employees Only' still swinging slightly from when she had walked through seconds earlier, "What are you guys doing?"

"We're arresting one of your customers," Owen said bluntly, before looking over at 'Smith', " For the murder of Alexander Corinder, and Malcolm Merits."

"What?" The girl stared, "You can't do that. You're-"

"We're police," Martha said calmly, not looking away from 'Mr. Smith'.

"No you're not," The girl said, "I know all the police-"

"Special division," Martha said, "From New York. Now, is there a back entrance to this place, this man's very dangerous, two people have already died. We don't want to take him out the front."

"Um, sure," The girl said seriously, stunned, a _murderer was in their coffee shop!_

"Right, come on," Owen said.

"Wait, you think _I_'ve been doing all this?" 'Mr. Smith' stared at Martha, it seemed Owen's earlier statement had just registered.

"Yes," She replied bluntly, frowning at the fact he had budged.

"But… I haven't hurt anyone… here," 'Mr. Smith' frowned, "Look, Martha, just wait for Ianto and Jack, they'll tell you I didn't do this."

"And why would that be?" Martha asked, "For all we know you could've done some psychic trick to them, make them believe you had nothing to do with this."

"I haven't!" 'Mr. Smith' said frantically, something more than fear of being captured in his eyes. More like...sadness. "Look, trust me, I'm-"

"He's the alien," Tosh said, holding up her scanner. Then she gasped, "Martha. Take a look at this."

Martha glared at 'Smith', "In a moment Tosh, we need to get 'Smith' here somewhere where less people are."

"No, but Martha, it's-"

"Martha!"

Martha jumped slightly, glancing over her shoulder quickly, before remembering what they were doing and looking back at the murderer. "Jack, about time."

"Seems like you've met 'Mr. Smith' then," Jack smiled, ignoring Martha's confused look.

"In a way," 'Smith' said.

"So, Ianto says you've found the alien," Jack said, ignoring their prisoner, hopeful "Who is it?"

"It's him," Martha pointed at 'Smith' "Mr. Smith, the history teacher." Martha shot a confused look at ianto as Jack's face fell. Ianto just frowned.

"Martha. It isn't him," Jack said, worriedly.

"It is," Martha said, about to continue and explain herself when Jack continued.

"No, Martha. Mr. Smith. He's the Doctor."

* * *

><p>Gwen held her head in her hands, swaying slightly as she thought over the possibilities.<p>

_It's cool, but not air-conditioning cold, so no vents._

_One door- locked from the outside(just assumed as there was no handle or lock, or to mention any sort of seam)._

_No electricity._

_One light switch._

_Nothing on the walls._

_The middle of the room?_

Gwen stood. Might as well try.

Hesitantly, the Welshwoman walked away from the comforting support of the wooden panels that made up the walls and shuffled her way into the middle of the room, arms flailing about, in search of anything to come into contact with.

A few steps in, her hand connecting with something.

Something small.

Dark.

Cold.

Metallic.

There was a dull thud.

"What was that!" Michael shouted, apparently not having heard Gwen stand up.

"Just me, darling," Gwen said, "I knocked something over. I can't find it."

"It's by my foot," The boy whispered, terrified.

"Hey, don't worry," Gwen tried to calm him, following his voice, "It's probably nothing."

"Or it could be the thing that's got us stuck in here in the first place," Michael whimpered.

"Hey, Michael," Gwen said, kneeling as she came close to the boy, "Don't worry, nothing's going to hurt-"

Michael screamed.

Gwen shrieked.

A fist connected with her eye, sending her flying into a wall. She tried to move away, but her arms and legs seemed to have ceased working.

"Michael!" Gwen shouted. The screams continued.

Then there was silence.

"Michael?" Gwen asked, her voice cutting through the silence, "Michael?" It came out more frantic this time.

She crawled forward, afraid of what she might find.

Nothing.

Well.

Nothing but a smooth, cold, metallic object resting innocently in the corner.

But no Michael.

* * *

><p>"No," Martha frowned, "Look this things does stuff with your head. It isn't-"<p>

"It is," Jack said, "Look, the TARDIS is here, it's him, he-"

"Prove it," Martha looked over at 'Smith', suspicious.

"Okay…" He frowned, then began, "You've got two siblings, Tish and Leo. Tish is older, Leo's younger. You're parent's are divorced, but they have come back together, sometimes happens after a traumatic experience spent together. You are engaged to Thomas Milligan- pediatrics-"

"Yeah, sounds like you've read my file," Martha said with a glare.

"I'm not finished," 'Smith said, "Sonnet 18- William Shakespeare- it was written about you. There's no sequel to Love's Labor's Lost, because it contains the pattern of words necessary for the Carrionites to become unlocked from their prison. You've travelled the world all on your own. You were training to be a doctor when the hospital you were in was sent to the moon and we were chased by rhinoceros' in space suits, and you refused to call me 'Doctor' because I never earned the title," he paused, just as the door swung open, "Is that enough?"

Martha smiled slightly, about to answer when someone behind her spoke.

"Excuse me," Alice Trails walked between Ianto and Jack so she could move over to the Doctor, "I need to speak to Mr. Smith. It's very important. School business." Martha frowned. The headmistress was visibly shaking.

"Um," Jack moved to speak when, suddenly, there was a tremendous crashing sound as the room went completely black.

**Well then, I hope you enjoyed that chapter- I have a good idea of what the next one will contain, so I'll start working on that tomorrow, if I have time... *sigh* driver's permit time... yay... not... Ah well. I'll try to have the next chapter up _before_ February, 'cause when that month comes it'll be one thing after another and all of a sudden it's June. So basically February's the month I lose what little of a life I have(which is kinda funny as my birthday's then... haha, get it, my life started then and I... no... okay... why I'm not a comedian right there). So I hope this lived up to your expectations of their meeting(even though it's not fully over yet... oh the suspense!)**.** With that, I hope you leave a REVIEW(I may be able to spare some of the freshly baked brownies I made yesterday, although they will be slightly flavorless without a vivid imagination), and thanks for reading!**


	11. Movement

**Just to start off before the chapter- I am extremely sorry for the humungous wait between chapters, especially considering the cliffhanger on the last chapter. I realize it has been over half a year, and for that I am extremely apologetic(if you couldn't tell beforehand.) I originally planned to get back to this story after Hell Month at my school(**_**Soo **_** many different things all trying to occupy the same space at the same time,) yet, as you can tell, that didn't happen. Hell Month turned into Hell Semester and a Half and all of a sudden it's summer and I'm away for two months. School just started and I decided I **_**must**_** finish this.**

**If you didn't have the patience to read that apology- my views on this chapter- I am not too happy with this, I had two strong stories(at least, in my opinion), but about nine chapters in I realized I had completely forgotten the second one, but it is essential to the story and now it awkwardly pops up again. If you don't notice- Huzzah! If you do… ah well.**

**Anyways- I apologize for the extremely long gap between chapters, and hope that you still enjoy this story. **

**And, also- to all those who reviewed during my absence, I normally try to reply, yet was unable to. So, as of now- Thank you very much for your reviews, I really appreciate them, and I feel extremely bad for not having given a continuation of the story until now, and I hope you are still interested in and enjoying this story.**

**Chapter 10  
><strong>

**Movement  
><strong>

Tosh moaned loudly. She was tied down, in complete darkness, but that could just be her eyes, there _had_ been a burst of color and light before she had passed out, and something heavy was trapping her right leg. Not just heavy- sharp. As she struggled against the bindings, she realized they weren't rope as she had originally suspected, but a thick plant material which was not in fact tied around her arms, just pinning them awkwardly to her sides.

"Owen! Tosh! Ianto!" Jack's voice sounded oddly muffled until Tosh moved her head to try and catch sight of the immortal. All was black. And green. So it wasn't her eyes then. Unless blind people naturally saw green, which she highly doubted. Something tickled her nose and she blew at it quickly, only to have it come right back into her cheek. It was smooth and roundish from what she could tell, the nerves in her cheek not accurate enough to pick up that sort of detail. But there was enough information to figure it out.

They were leaves.

"What?" Tosh muttered through the pain.

"I've got Ianto!" Martha.

There was a dull scraping sound accompanied by the sound of tearing plant material.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine," Ianto.

"Owen?" Jack. His voice had moved over to around where Ianto's had come from.

A dull bang, as though someone had knocked over a chair onto a padded floor.

"I'm 'ere, watch it!" Owen "There's a bloody plant in my face."

"There are 'bloody plants' everywhere, Owen," Ianto again, with the tone of voice he used to point out the obvious to the callous doctor.

"Careful with him, Martha," Jack warned, "Try and keep him away from the thorns."

The rustle of leaves, slight grunts, and then a tearing sound.

"And there goes my jacket," Owen again, "Fucking thorns. Try and avoid 'em and they come back stronger."

"Where's Tosh?" Ianto once more.

"I'm here," Tosh managed to gasp out, trying to keep her chest above the floor, with what little movement her arms could accomplish, which seemed to be covered in vines- the position put less strain on her leg.

"Hold on," Jack's voice came from a few feet to her left. After a few seconds, Tosh heard the sound of vines tearing and felt a slight breeze as a clump of leaves was moved out from in front of her face.

"Here," Martha's hand gripped Tosh's arm, obviously about to help pull her out.

"Wait! My leg, it's stuck," Tosh shouted, not wanting to cause anymore pain to her calf, which was at this moment, being tenderized by some sort of coffee shop furnishing.

"Got it. Owen." Ianto's voice came from behind her and soon the pressure was lifted slightly, "That should do it, it's one of the booths."

Tosh was quickly pulled out of the vines. As she stood, the dull thud of the booth hitting the floor accompanied the sounds of Ianto, and Owen trying to make their way back to them.

The room was barely lit- the windows seemed to be blocked by-

"Are those plants?" Tosh asked, as Martha checked her leg quickly.

"Yeah, everything's covered," Jack said.

"Not just that, they all look like they've been here for years," Owen said, "From what I can tell, these vines are almost half a foot thick, and a type I've never seen before on Earth, or in the hothouse for that matter."

"It was Trails," Ianto said, helping Owen through a particularly dense clump of vines, "She threw something at us and these sprouted up."

"There was a flash of light, what-" Tosh started to ask, but Martha answered before she had finished.

"The plants hit the lights before the power source, so the bulbs exploded. And, from what we can tell, there was some major friction from these plants growing so fast and close together. It was pretty hot in here for a bit, but it's cooled down, obviously," Martha said as Tosh shivered and tried to stand to inspect the plants, "Better not do that. I don't have the equipment with me, obviously, for an in-depth scan, but I can tell you're going to get major bruising from the booth and you shouldn't put a lot of pressure on it, I'm not sure how long the thing was on your leg, but the pressure could have weakened your bone if it had dropped on top of it. Owen, keep an eye on her," Martha took on the persona of the doctor as she directed Owen to make sure Tosh didn't stand as she checked Ianto, and secondly Tosh, for any major cuts or bruises caused by the abnormal plant growth.

"Right, Ianto, check to see if there's anyone else in here," Jack said as soon as it was clear the Welshman was physically all right, "Owen see if you can find any sort of familiar plants-" Martha started to protest, but he continued nevertheless, "Tosh, stay sitting and see if you can get any signal on your scanner, and see if you can find a way to communicate with anyone outside. Martha, you and I can help Ianto."

* * *

><p>Gwen was huddled in a corner.<p>

She did not know which corner.

It was a corner.

It was a corner in a dark room.

It was a corner in a dark room which had once held two people.

It was a corner in a dark room which had once held two people, yet now only held one.

_One_.

_Alone_.

A deep, shaky breath.

"Calm down Gwen."

Gwen brought her head up to connect with the wall. The stars became the only form of light in the silent, black room.

She did it once more, groaning. There was a sinking sensation deep within herself.

_Terror. Depression. ._

"Gwen. Stop. It. It wasn't your fault. He was just-"

She froze.

"Who's there?"

There was something across the room. She had seen movement.

Somehow.

"Talk. Now."

No answer.

"I mean it. I have a gun. I'm a good shot."

Only silence.

She whimpered.

* * *

><p>The Doctor pulled himself up into a sitting position, noting almost immediately the ache in his left elbow, most likely from hard contact with the pavement where he was now lying. Glancing down quickly, he ascertained that he was not injured- just slightly ruffled.<p>

"Right," He said sharply, standing, "Care to explain?" He gestured towards once had recently been a café, but now resembled an overgrown exhibit of a tropical habitat. If he had not been standing in that very building moments before, he would have believed the plant growth had been there for years.

Alice Trails jumped up, moving over to gently help Michael into a standing position, "Look, we need to get out of here-"

"Not until you explain why you have alien florae," The Doctor stated firmly- torn between worry for his friends and their colleagues, and the possibility of discovering what was going on. He walked up to Trails while adding, "And while you're explaining the alien florae, how about this boy?"

"I _will_ explain, but not here," Alice glanced frantically at the café, "Is your ship nearby?"

"Right, there's another very good question I have for you- You know who I am. How?" The Doctor said stubbornly, once more he had decide whether to be gentle, as he would normally like, or firm- which this case seemed to call for. The woman standing before him might hold an extremely advanced, rare- and not to mention, banned- torture device. It could be anyone, to be honest, but the odds weren't in her favor of it not.

"Please- Doctor, you're in danger," Alice said, trying to grab his wrist.

"From them… or you?" The Doctor stepped out of her range.

Her eyes widened in panic, "Th-"

"I thought we weren't supposed to plant the seeds."

Both the Doctor and Alice jumped slightly, they had both forgotten about the young boy standing between them, the recent developments putting them both on edge. He was watching the slower of the vines finish their growth, winding in and out of the windows of the café, every now and then a vibrantly colored flower blooming and setting a splash of color against the dark green that had overtaken almost half the street by now.

"Michael," Alice grimaced slightly, then she gasped, kneeling next to him, "Michael!"

The Doctor- not one to ignore when someone might be in danger, or hurt for that matter- knelt down next to her. They both sighed shortly when they noted what Alice had first thought to be a large gash in the boys forehead was just a large scrape which yielded much blood, but was not very deep.

What the Doctor also noticed was that underneath the blood-matted bangs, he could now see a small- barely visible blue mark.

"You're AnteNoctes," The Doctor stood as Alice quickly wiped Michael's forehead she pulled out of her purse after a short minute of rummaging, "This planet is an AntePerCaelum- you're not allowed to be here."

"No, we aren't _supposed_ to be here," Alice corrected him, "I understand… timelines…" She added distractedly as she helped Michael walked slowly, but steadily away from the café and into a nearby alley, motioning for the Doctor to follow.

Keeping close for two reasons- worry for Michael, and the need to understand what was going on- the Doctor took the tissue from her and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

Muttering-"Let's hope she left the cauterization setting on here," the Doctor ran the glowing green tip lightly across the boy's forehead motioning for him to sit. As soon as the bleeding lessened, he turned to the Headmistress, then paused- "Amy!"

The Scottish red head started, as did her husband, both of whom were staring at the now-plant-covered café. They had both frozen in their path to the café as they took in the sight of their destination being overtaken by colorful alien vines.

"Doctor! What happened?"

"Exactly what I was asking here," The Doctor looked at Alice, who now was glancing nervously at his two companions. "You'd better have a good explanation as to why two AnteNoctes are here with illegal florae on an AntePerCaelum planet, specifically Port 1."

"Ante-whats?" Amy asked, entering the alleyway with Rory following close behind.

"AnteNoctes- that's what they are," The Doctor said, deciding to cut his normally rambling explanation short so as to get to the answers fastest, "Generally historians- archaeologists- pre-flight psychologists, that sort of thing. Except, they knew- as that twisted form of time-travellers they are- to stay away from human-inhabited planets. Especially this one. All AntePerCaelum planets."

"So they're aliens," Rory said.

"Not quite," The Doctor said, "They are humans- just a couple thousand years in the future- or their grandparents were- judging by his mark. As the humans expanded throughout your galaxy, the Milky Way as you know it, they started to make attempts at all time travel. It always failed, as they had not yet come into contact with my people enough to try and base their machines on our ships. Until a TARDIS broke through the barriers set up around the Great Time War. It crashed, and these future humans- AnteNoctes- "before the Night" as they are known, were colonizing the planet on which the TARDIS crashed. It caused a break in the Time Vortex, sucking the whole colony through. The TARDIS grown during that time were not built to be sturdy, just fast and strong- more dangerous. Anyways, the colonizing humans were taken back to nearly two hundreds before this current time, the twenty-first century. In the future, years later, they were able to send messages, but not recover the lost humans. Since then, the humans used their scavenged technology to spread across the galaxy, collecting information about the past to send to the future, a first hand account. Yet, they are not allowed _on _Earth, until the first colonizing vessel is sent out of the atmosphere- PerCaelum. They would only observe, never touching down. Until now. And now, it is time for _you _ to explain."

"Fine," Alice Trails said, glancing across the road to the café. "If you already know about the device, then I might as well tell you we need to move. Please, can we move to a safer place. Besides, we're outside its reach, it _will_ follow us. Michael won't handle this well. "

Almost as if to accentuate her point, Michael slumped over in her arms, the semi-dried blood from the scrape on his head smearing over her blouse.

"Alright. Fine," the Doctor amended, "Rory. Help her. Amy, get them into the TARDIS. Keep _her_ in front of you. I'll get the others."

"No!" Alice shouted as he turned to leave, "They think it's you! They're going to capture you! They aren't police! They will capture you and kill you! They are _Torchwood_."

"Two out of five," The Doctor noted, "They are my _friends_. They'll know by now that I'm me… the Doctor," He frowned slightly, "Besides, Torchwood is different now. They won't-" He stopped short, "Well, I won't say that yet. You had better have a good explanation for having brought a Relaiin torture device to Earth. A very good one."

With that, the Doctor spun about and ran off, leaving his two companions to help Alice and Michael to the TARDIS.

* * *

><p>Gwen tightened her grip around her knees, not caring that her legs were cramping ferociously.<p>

She felt safe.

Not safe enough to open her eyes.

Safer than before.

Well, not _exactly. _

Still. It gave her comfort.

A noise.

Now… that on the other hand.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen slowly opened her eyes, trying to stay completely still.

At first, she thought it must be the pressure from keeping her eyes shut so tightly.

No.

It _was_ light.

"How?"

She jumped up.

Fell.

"Fuck."

Grabbing the wall, she hoisted herself up, leaning heavily against the vertical surface, staring out the now open door.

She moved towards it.

Froze.

Slowly turned around.

The room was _empty_.

No Round Ball of Doom.

No Michael.

"Where-?"

She should stay.

She should attempt to figure it out.

She should-

She needed to get out.

"The door might close again." She reasoned.

She walked out, quickly switched to running.

She needed to find Jack.

She headed out of the school.

To the town.

* * *

><p>"Shit Tosh, that looks nasty," Owen stated as he gently brushed the torn material which had once been her trousers<strong>(AN- Is this correct? I'm trying to keep it as 'authentically Torchwoodish as possible)**.

"Right, thanks Owen, I feel a lot better now." Tosh muttered sarcastically, clenching her jaw in reaction to the pain. A minor injury such as this would normally not effect her as strongly as the current one did, but the added pressure of stress, the rapidly changing temperatures, and an always lurking sense of-

"Owen?" Tosh looked up at the doctor so quickly, he jumped back.

"Did I hurt you?" He asked in an uncharacteristically caring voice.

"No. Just… Do you feel like something's been watching us? Or, that something bad is going to happen. Or-"

"Where's Gwen?" Jack's voice cut through her questioning. "Did any of you see her?"

"She was with us," Tosh said, before freezing and bursting out, "Shit! I left her. I forgot about her. She could be in danger. She could-"

"Tosh!" Owen's hand shot out, covering her mouth, "Tosh," He repeated, more gently this time, "Calm down. What's wrong with you?" The way he asked the question made it obvious he was worried about her, not acting his normal, callous self. "If anyone should feel the blame for having lost Gwen it should be-"

"Oh God. Me." Martha gasped, sitting down on one of the less-ripped bar stools.

"Shit," Jack breathed, moving over to Martha slowly, "I thought he said it didn't extend this far out."

"What doesn't?" Tosh grabbed Jack's arm as he passed by her.

"There's this… device." Jack tried to find a way to describe it gently to the over-scared women, "It causes nightmares… waking nightmares. They're so vivid you can't even tell they're not real, even if it's something you know to be impossible. Like-"

"Like Lisa." Ianto cut in quietly.

"Lisa?" Tosh asked, momentarily confused, until it dawned on her, "Oh. Ianto, I'm sorry-"

"So that's who you saw." Jack glanced at Ianto, "It felt real, didn't it?"

Ianto nodded silently, his face deceptively calm.

"Ianto, I'm sorry, but we need to figure this out now. You saw her in the entrance hall, right?" Jack asked, continuing as Ianto nodded once more, "Our phones having been sketchy throughout the grounds, the Doctor seemed to think the radius of the device didn't extend past the hotel, which is closer to the school than the town."

"It's getting closer." Tosh whimpered.

Martha slid to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees, "And we're stuck here."

Ianto fiddled with his cuffs, "How're we going to get out of this Jack?"

Owen frowned, "Hold on. I know you three well enough," he pointed to Jack, Tosh, and Ianto, "To know, Tosh and Ianto aren't normally like this. Neither are you from what I've seen" he nodded to Martha, "So why aren't we panicking?" He directed the question to Jack.

"I'm a more… refined form of human. It takes a little longer for it to affect me," Jack explained, "At least, the one I've seen before. You… well, my best guess is, since it is similar to a reverse telepath, since you have no living brain activity, it can't implant images or emotions. Just a guess."

"Well then, for now, I guess it's just you and me," Owen looked over at Martha, head buried in her arms, "Talk to Ianto, he mentioned something a while ago about the new secretary being familiar, I'll stay with these two," Owen motioned to Martha and Tosh.

Jack agreed and went over to Ianto.

"Jack?" Ianto asked.

"What?"

"If we're beyond the original radius…" Ianto paused, "What if it's moved?"

"Last time I checked, Ianto," Jack replied, "These psychological torture devices don't have legs."

"But what if it has Gwen?"

**I hope you enjoyed that chapter(I'm not too happy with it.) I realize it's not much more than the last one. But I will do my best to get the next one posted as soon as possible. And I don't mean nine months again(As much as I wish I were David Tennant, I will just settle for imitating him-I'm so so sorry.) Hopefully I will have a new chapter by the weekend. At most, the end of the month- but I will NOT sit around for 29 days and then panic and put out a crappy chapter after I remember my promise. Anyways, thank you for reading, I'm sorry I haven't replied to any new comments(I will start replying again now) and I hope you still enjoy the story.**


	12. AUTHOR'S NOTEAPOLOGY

**Alright... So, it's been over a year since I last updated and I was looking over my account the other day and found this again. I'd been meaning to come back to this many times, but never had the time or the energy. I have been going through a very rough time, both school wise and in my personal life. I tried to stay with it, but after the year between my two previous updates and now this past year, I have realized that I will never get around to finishing this. I am very sorry for any of you who are still interested in this story, but I will never finish it. **

**That being said, I have a few notes about the ending and I did have specific backgrounds for some of the characters. If any of you reading this is interested in finishing this story, please message me and I can send you the notes. I would really like to see this story finished, and if anyone is interested in finishing it, please let me know.**

**On that note, I am extremely sorry to say that (my part, at least, of)**** There's Something in the Dark ****is done.**

**Thank you to all those who have reviewed/favorited/followed this story, if it is picked up by someone else, I will add another note. Once again, I am sorry and thank you for reading this.**


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